Gregory Rockman

Gregory Rockman (born 29 January 1959) is a South African politician and former policeman who founded the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) and served as its inaugural president from 1989 to 1994. After that he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2000.

Rockman was a lieutenant in the apartheid-era South African Police in Mitchells Plain until September 1989, when he came forward to corroborate allegations of police brutality against anti-apartheid protestors. His claims led to criminal charges against two white officers and contributed to public pressure for police and political reform in South Africa. He founded POPCRU in November 1989 for other dissident policemen and continued to lead it after he was fired from the police force for his political activity in March 1990.

Police career and POPCRU Rockman was born on 29 January 1959. He was the son of an automotive machinist and was classified as coloured under apartheid-era racial classification laws. He joined the South African Police in 1977, at the age of the 18, in his account because he "wanted to serve my community as a protector". By 1989, he was a lieutenant in the crime prevention division at the police station in the coloured neighbourhood of Mitchells Plain, Cape Town.

Rockman said that he was not prepared to act as an "oppressor" to his community.

Also in March 1990, POPCRU organised South Africa's first police strike since 1917.

Parliament: 1994–2000 In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Rockman was elected to represent the ANC in the National Assembly, and he was re-elected to his seat in 1999.

However, in March 2000, he announced that he had asked President Thabo Mbeki for permission to resign from Parliament in order to become chief executive of POPCRU's R10-million investment wing, established in 1999. His resignation took effect on 1 May 2000 and his seat in Parliament was filled by Henry Fazzie.

Personal life In 1989 Rockman was married and had two young children.