Council workers were greeted with angry stares yesterday as they cleared a notorious section of Lansdowne Road, previously barricaded by an angry community and forcibly shut for almost a month.
Just after 9am, an army of council vehicles, escorted by the Metro Police, descended on Lansdowne Road adjacent to BT-Section in Site C, Khayelitsha. For months, the area has been the scene of violent riots by residents demanding that the council move them to an alternative, serviced site.
The violence culminated in the brutal beating in August of an off-duty Stellenbosch policeman, who drew his service pistol when he was confronted by a mob. Seven people were subsequently arrested for public violence and two charged with the assault on the policeman, who spent some time in hospital after he was beaten unconscious.
Yesterday's action by the City Council's cleansing and law enforcement departments caught the community off-guard.
For a while a stand-off ensued between residents and police officers. They had just arrested two young women for incitement after they used a loudhailer to call a community meeting in response to the clean-up.
An angry crowd continued to gather, calling for the release of the two as residents refused to disperse; only doing so when their neighbours emerged from a Metro Police minibus.
Thembinkosi Tshweza expressed a similar sentiment when asked about his thoughts on the opening of the road.
"They should've spoken to people about opening the road. (Mayor) Dan Plato promised that we would be moved within three months, but their failure to tell us means that we'll be here for a long time," Tshweza said.
Like many residents, Tshweza said he was not scared of police rubber bullets because his choices were limited.
"If people start protesting, I'll also join them because we're all in this together," said a defiant Tshweza as he watched the council's mechanical street sweepers clearing Lansdowne Road of accumulated dirt which had stuck to its surface.
One of the community's leaders, Mangaliso Simons, said he had to intervene because confrontation would be one-sided in favour of the police.
"I told people that the police have guns, we are unarmed, along with the fact that many people, including children, would've been hurt if they started shooting at us," Simons said.
He said the community was angry at the council's action before it had made a solid undertaking to remove the community by a set date.
- Cape Times
Just after 9am, an army of council vehicles, escorted by the Metro Police, descended on Lansdowne Road adjacent to BT-Section in Site C, Khayelitsha. For months, the area has been the scene of violent riots by residents demanding that the council move them to an alternative, serviced site.
The violence culminated in the brutal beating in August of an off-duty Stellenbosch policeman, who drew his service pistol when he was confronted by a mob. Seven people were subsequently arrested for public violence and two charged with the assault on the policeman, who spent some time in hospital after he was beaten unconscious.
Yesterday's action by the City Council's cleansing and law enforcement departments caught the community off-guard.
For a while a stand-off ensued between residents and police officers. They had just arrested two young women for incitement after they used a loudhailer to call a community meeting in response to the clean-up.
An angry crowd continued to gather, calling for the release of the two as residents refused to disperse; only doing so when their neighbours emerged from a Metro Police minibus.
Thembinkosi Tshweza expressed a similar sentiment when asked about his thoughts on the opening of the road.
"They should've spoken to people about opening the road. (Mayor) Dan Plato promised that we would be moved within three months, but their failure to tell us means that we'll be here for a long time," Tshweza said.
Like many residents, Tshweza said he was not scared of police rubber bullets because his choices were limited.
"If people start protesting, I'll also join them because we're all in this together," said a defiant Tshweza as he watched the council's mechanical street sweepers clearing Lansdowne Road of accumulated dirt which had stuck to its surface.
One of the community's leaders, Mangaliso Simons, said he had to intervene because confrontation would be one-sided in favour of the police.
"I told people that the police have guns, we are unarmed, along with the fact that many people, including children, would've been hurt if they started shooting at us," Simons said.
He said the community was angry at the council's action before it had made a solid undertaking to remove the community by a set date.
- Cape Times
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