Andries Tatane (22 February 1978 – 13 April 2011) was a South African citizen who was shot and killed by police officers during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg.
In the months before he died he left COPE to join the Meqheleng Concerned Citizens (MCC), an autonomous local community organisation.
While Tatane's death as a result of police action during a protest is by no means a unique event in South Africa, it had notably garnered greater nationwide attention than any previous such occurrence.
The ANC's National Spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, condemned the brutality, but also chastised the SABC for broadcasting the footage during the prime time news, citing the fact that it might have upset sensitive viewers,[11] calling on the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to investigate the SABC's editorial decision.
After visiting the Tatane family in Meqheleng, Ficksburg, on 19 April 2011, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Dr Thabo Makgoba, directed attention to the lack of justice and delivery on promises which had preceded the incident and points out the irony of the protesters having been met with water cannons, "attacked with the very thing they don’t have the pleasure of in their daily lives."
He added that "Minister Nathi Mthethwa and President Zuma should publicly apologise for this embarrassing act of aggression by police.
[19] This poem has since been republished as the epilogue to a scholarly book titled Static: Race & Representation in Post-Apartheid Music, Media & Film[20] In Music, Andries Tatane is named in a struggle song of the Economic Freedom Fighters in memoriam of his death and solidarity for justice for his death.