Police to take 'nasty' approach to protests

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has taken a thinly veiled swipe at trade unions, saying the police would take a "nasty" approach to violent protests and would not accept the excuse that "criminal elements" of organisations were responsible.

Mthethwa was speaking at a DefenceWeb conference on public order policing, in Midrand.

Though he did not mention an organisation by name, Mthethwa said: "We are told all the time that it's criminal elements. If it's criminal elements [event organisers] have a responsibility to ensure that no criminal elements come to their functions."

Mthethwa said the organisers of violent protests were most frequently people who were not willing to take responsibility for acts of aggression.

The Supreme Court of Appeal last week ruled that trade unions were liable for damage caused by their members.

Mthethwa did not refer to the death earlier this year of Andries Tatane at the hands of police firing rubber bullets but said the police would work to eliminate "excesses" in the way in which they dealt with the public.

He said the police had begun a review of their public order policing policy because it was "important to determine whether our policy conformed with constitutional and legal imperatives".