Perspective: Africa (Sep 2016) Perspective: Africa (Sep 2016) | Page 27

Perspective: Africa - September 2016

her children who could have been injured
(but weren’t).

Americans would not be able to afford a
private lawyer for a criminal defence that
would cost well over $100 000 – approximately R1.4 million – without going
bankrupt). The racist application of the
law results in the disproportionately longterm imprisonment of millions of black
people, aided by drug laws from Ronald
Reagan’s presidency that punish possession

American prosecutors routinely seek
maximum charges and sentences for black
defendants, especially those whose limited
financial resources force them to depend
on an overworked public defender for their
legal representation. (Even middle-class

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of crack (cooked cocaine, mostly used by
poor people) with far heavier sentences
than possession of powder cocaine (used
mainly by white yuppies). Prosecutors
also routinely use taxpayer money to resist
DNA tests in older cases that could exonerate convicts. Why are they so afraid
of scientific evidence if they believe the
convictions were justified?

by police officers who simply deny the
accusations. Those arrested cannot prove
which police officers assaulted them and so
nothing happens. This problem could be
solved by placing CCTV in every cell and
interrogation room but nothing is done.
Nevertheless, these South African accused
criminals are lucky by African standards
– at least they make it to court: across the
continent, detainees simply disappear,
their mutilated bodies occasionally discovered weeks later. There is little to zero
accountability. As Zimbabweans rise up
against Robert Mugabe’s disastrous rule,
our television screens are filled with images
of police officers dragging citizens out of
their homes and beating them senseless.

America has only begun to scratch the
surface of these problems that have festered for generations. However, more
use-of-force guidelines are definitely not
the answer unless they specifically bow to
commonsense and context.
What about black lives on our continent?
Every day, black defendants show up in
South African courts with bruises, cuts
and assorted injuries from being assaulted

As noted by South African journalist and
author, Sandile Memela: “When a black
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