AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

145 cases of torture, including 51 cases of
rape, by police officers on duty, and 3,509
cases of assault by police. Legal proceedings
relating to unlawful killings by police
remained slow.
In Durban High Court, the trial of 27 police
officers, most of them members of the now
disbanded Cato Manor Organized Crime Unit,
on charges including 28 counts of murder,
was further delayed until 31 January 2017.
In October, the Public Protector issued a
report into violence at Durban’s Glebelands
hostel complex between March 2014 and
November 2016 during which over 60 people
died in targeted killings. The report found
that the conflict was a result of the
municipality’s failure to assume responsibility
for rental accommodation at the hostel. The
report highlighted the detention and torture
by police of at least three Glebelands
residents in 2014, with no action taken
against those suspected of criminal
responsibility. The IPID investigation into the
March 2014 death in custody of Zinakile
Fica, a Glebelands resident, was not
completed.
The Public Protector’s report also found
that the police failed in its duty to prevent
and investigate crime and to protect hostel
residents, highlighting the low ratio of arrests
and lack of successful prosecution of murder
suspects. The Public Protector promised to
monitor investigations of allegations of police
torture and killings of Glebelands residents.
In April, Glebelands residents submitted
an urgent appeal to the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, calling for
the UN Human Rights Council to intervene
regarding the targeted killings. On 7
November, a Glebelands peace committee
leader was shot dead after leaving Umlazi
Magistrate’s Court. No arrests have been
made.
INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE
In October, the government submitted an
instrument of withdrawal from the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court
(ICC) without consulting Parliament. 1 The
withdrawal takes effect after one year. The
move followed non-co-operation procedures
by the ICC against South Africa after the
authorities failed to execute warrants of arrest
for genocide, crimes against humanity and
war crimes against Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir when he visited South Africa in
June 2015 to attend the African Union (AU)
summit. The move also followed the
dismissal by South Africa’s Supreme Court of
Appeal on 15 March of an appeal against the
2015 North Gauteng High Court judgment
that the failure to arrest President al-Bashir
violated South Africa’s Constitution. State
authorities had allowed President al-Bashir to
leave South Africa in contravention of an
interim order by North Gauteng High Court
that he must remain.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY
New research concluded that the failure of
mining company Lonmin to address housing
conditions at Marikana contributed to the
events of August 2012, when police shot
dead 34 striking mineworkers. 2 Under its
legally binding 2006 Social and Labour Plan,
Lonmin had promised to construct 5,500
houses for mineworkers by 2011. It had built
only three by 2012. In August 2016, Lonmin
said that approximately 13,500 of its 20,000
permanent employees still needed formal
accommodation. Many mineworkers
continued to live in informal settlements such
as Nkaneng within Lonmin’s mine lease area.
The shacks in Nkaneng do not meet the most
basic international requirements for adequate
housing. As a result, Lonmin’s operations
were inconsistent with the right to an
adequate standard of living, including
adequate housing.
REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ RIGHTS
Xenophobia and violence against refugees,
asylum-seekers and migrants continued,
resulting in deaths, injuries and
displacement. Many incidents involved the
targeted looting of foreign-owned small
businesses in townships.
In June, shops in Pretoria townships were
looted and at least 12 refugees and migrants
were seriously injured and hundreds
330 Amnesty International Report 2016/17