DEPUTY commissioner William Steenkamp says protesters who were demanding action against gender-based violence were dispersed because they had contravened the Public Gathering Act.
Steenkamp was speaking at the Windhoek police station on Saturday where he said “the masses had been part of an illegal protest which police had not been notified of”.
Demonstrations against sexual and gender-based violence held in Windhoek’s central business district are a continuation of protests sparked by by the discovery of human remains in Walvis Bay that are believed to be Shannon Wasserfall who disappeared six months ago. Three people have been arrested in connection with her death.
Photos and videos circulating on social media show members of the police force chasing and firing teargas at demonstrators.
Steenkamp however said he sympathised with the protesters, and that he would have appreciated a more civil approach.
“We reside in a country where there are laws and everyone is expected to abide by them,” he said.
He however could not reveal the number of protestors who had been detained.
Utaara Tjitunga a 37-year-old mother of one of the protesters detained at the Windhoek central prison was heartbroken.
Her daughter Shana Katjimune (16), a Grade 11 pupil at Westmont high school, joined the protest on Saturday is one of those who were detained.
“How can they detain a minor at a prison without charging her,” she said.
Tjitunga lamented that police were traumatising the minor children by detaining them.
“I am so disappointed that police brutalised young children who wanted to take a stand against social ills,” she said.
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