A group of community advocates will on Thursday emulate “the man in the green blanket” to campaign for the banning of the use of R5 assault rifles in public order policing.
“It is clear both from the findings of the Farlam Commission and international good practice that the use of R5s in public order policing is inappropriate and should therefore be prohibited‚” says Amandla.mobi campaigner Koketso Moeti.
The protest‚ which was to take place outside the Centurion offices of arms manufacturer Denel‚ comes four days after the third anniversary of the Marikana massacre where 34 striking miners were gunned down by police.
“Mgcineni Mambush Noki – ‘the man in the green blanket’ - has since become a symbol of the events of that day‚” an Amandla.mobi statement said.
“According to the Farlam Commission report‚ 224 R5 rifles were deployed to Marikana prior to the incident.”
“Given the urgency of this matter‚ which is demonstrated by the high number of public protests and demonstrations in South Africa‚ this is simply not good enough; by failing to ban automatic rifles in public order policing‚ the Farlam Commission has missed an opportunity to learn from the atrocity of Marikana and save future lives‚” said Moeti.
“The R5 assault rifle is a war machine and the usage thereof for crowd control suggests that the state views itself as being at war with its citizens.”
