Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hout Bay resident threatens “an eye for an eye” for Helen Zille

Residents of Hout Bay are very angry with Western Cape Premier Helen Zille right at this moment. One of them in particular would be satisfied with clawing her eyes out, She has said as much.

The cause of all this animosity is a result of the Hout Bay riots last week; police were evicting illegal squatters on Tuesday and Wednesday when three people lost one eye each and landed up in hospital.

Helen Zille should remember the idiom, “An eye for an eye,” when thinking about Hout Bay, said a furious Auriol Cloete.

“If I had seen her on that day I would have taken her eyes out,” she added.

A rubber bullet caught her in the eye when she went to see what all the commotion was about.

An injured neighbour helped her to her mother's home; her eye was dangling from the socket.

"I have four children and they screamed when they saw me. I told them to drop to the ground because I didn't know what was happening," she said.

In hospital, she discovered that a member of her family was also in hospital due to the exact injury. "His name is Maurice Adams. He lost his right eye. He is still in hospital."
“I have lost my eye because of the police. I will have a fake eye,” she said.

Adams, 29, is now partially blind after being shot while cleaning his yard.

“They (police) just came to my yard and shot at me and didn’t wait to see if I was injured or not,” he says.

Ikram Halim, 40, was also shot in the eye that day whilst helping children get out of the firing line.

“The children didn’t know what to do at the time and I was trying to get them out of the way when the police started shooting,” says the fisherman.
“When I turned around, I saw a bullet coming straight to my eye, the rubber bullet fell out minutes later.”

Helen Zille has apologised for the injuries that the residents suffered but she also said that residents were asked repeatedly to take down the structures.

"I am very very sorry that anyone got hurt. It's a complete tragedy and I regret that it happened; 16 metro police officers were also injured," said Zille.

Auriol Cloete was told that Zille had called wanting to pay a visit.

"The nurse told me that Helen Zille phoned to say that she wanted to visit us. I was so angry that I said I would rip her eyes out so she could come and lie next to me in hospital."

- NewsTime

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