http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-21-who-was-andries-tatane

Who was Andries Tatane?
KWANELE SOSIBO - Apr 21 2011

Street in Ficksburg's Market Square where Andries Tatane died after police allegedly beat and shot him during a march to the Setsoto local municipality offices on Wednesday last week.

Phillip Selokoe, his former high school teacher, showed the Mail & Guardian an oval mark not far from the municipal building entrance where Tatane was apparently shot in the chest. Then he pointed out a smaller, spherical one about 10 metres further on where Tatane is said to have collapsed some minutes afterwards.

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72780

Police brutality and service delivery protests
Mphutlane wa Bofelo
2011-04-21, Issue 526

The six policemen arrested for the murder of protestor, Andries Tatane in Meqheleng Township in Ficksburg in South Africa’s Free State are 'political scapegoats'. To put it bluntly, the six are 'sacrificial goats' on the altar of populist, grandstanding and electioneering politics. Their arrest is a quick ploy to take attention away from the systemic factors that inform police brutality. It is aimed at absolving the collective responsibility of South African Police Services (SAPS) and its political principal, the ANC-led government. It is the timing of the incident rather than government's intolerance to police brutality that informs the arrest of the six cops. The number of incidents of intimidation, harassment, torture, arrest and shooting of protestors by police during peaceful protest action in the post 1994, neo-apartheid dispensation is alarming. Families, individuals and organisations that lay complaints to the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) and various state institutions about incidents of illegal arrests and illegal shootings, harassment and torture and ‘disappeared dockets’ often wait forever for any kind of response.

http://zabnew.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/andries-tatane-murdered-by-the-ruling-classes/

Andries Tatane: Murdered by the Ruling Classes

by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

On the 13th April, people in South Africa were stunned. On the evening news the sight of six police force members brutally beating a man, Andries Tatane, to death was aired. The images of the police smashing his body with batons and repeatedly firing rubber bullets into his chest struck a cord; people were simply shocked and appalled. Literally hundreds of articles followed in the press, politicians of all stripes also hopped on the bandwagon and said they lamented his death; and most called for the police to receive appropriate training to deal with ‘crowd control’ – after all, elections are a month away.

http://democraticleft.za.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90:we-condemn-the-murder-of-andries-tatane-and-the-securitisation-of-south-african-politics&catid=34:articles&Itemid=59

We condemn the murder of Andries Tatane and the securitisation of South African politics

21 April 2011

Democratic Left Front condemns police murder of Andries Tatane and the securitisation of South African politics

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/columnists/2011/04/19/tatane-s-death-underlines-need-for-government-to-deliver

Tatane's death underlines need for government to deliver

19-Apr-2011 | Bolekaja - Andile Mngxitama | 60 comments

"THE ANC government brutally murdered a peaceful martyr for social justice, Andries Tatane, on April 12 2011 in Ficksburg.

"The ANC government is responsible for Tatane's harrowing death in the same way that the Nationalist Party government was responsible for the murder of Steve Biko,"reads the press statement issued by the September National Imbizo (SNI).

http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1028697.ece/Let-them-drink-Valpr-eacute--says-Ficksburg-mayor

Let them drink Valpré says Ficksburg mayor

Residents' anger boils over at Tatane court case
Apr 18, 2011 10:24 PM | By SIPHO MASONDO in Ficksburg

"People say there is no water in this town. What is this?" giggled Ficksburg's mayor, Mbothoma Maduna, reaching into his office fridge for bottles of Valpré mineral water.

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-15-protesters-death-not-an-isolated-case/

Protester's death not an isolated case
ILHAM RAWOOT AND GLYNNIS UNDERHILL Apr 15 2011 07:31

The death of a protester in Setsoto, Ficksburg, on Wednesday, apparently at the hands of riot police, is not an isolated incident. The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), according to its 2010 annual report, investigated 1 769 cases of people dying in police custody or as a result of police action.

Video footage of the protester, identified as 33-year-old Andries Tatane, caused shockwaves when it was broadcast on SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) prime time news on Wednesday evening.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=140341

ITUMELENG MAHABANE: Death in Ficksburg shows how we value life
‘Between 70% and 80% live in the second economy and it is a place of humiliating and incapacitating poverty’
Published: 2011/04/15 06:52:20 AM

A MAN died this week. He died with his arms clutching his chest, trying to stop the blood spilling out of a gaping bullet hole.

His crime? In a country in which nearly 50% of the people live in poverty and where nearly 50% of black people are unemployed — most of them without the prospect of ever finding a job — he died because he wanted a better deal for his community.

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-04-14-ficksburg-protestors-set-buildings-alight

Ficksburg protesters torch buildings
MIRANDA ANDREW JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Apr 14 2011 15:11

Two municipal buildings in Ficksburg, in the eastern Free State, were set alight by rioters on Thursday after the killing of a man allegedly by the police.

"The home affairs building and the public works building was set alight at around 12.45pm," said police spokesperson Captain Phumelelo Dlamini.

"We are not sure if anyone has been injured or if the buildings were evacuated in time," he said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1019541.ece/Protester-beaten-and-shot-to-death

Protester beaten and shot to death

Shocking images as police shown beating defenceless protester to death

Apr 13, 2011 10:19 PM | By CHANDRE PRINCE, SIPHO MASONDO and HARRIET MCLEA
Shocking images of police brutality were broadcast to the nation on television yesterday - they showed an unarmed man being beaten to death by a mob of policemen.