Cape Town - While nine men remain in custody after human waste was dumped at Cape Town International Airport, a new group have taken up the “poo war” against the City of Cape Town.
The nine in custody face serious charges under the Civil Aviation Act and, if found guilty, up to 30 years in prison.
The new group, comprising 15 members, say they are willing to be arrested for their actions.
The 15, who say they represent the areas “affected” by the fight with the city over toilets, announced on Friday they had established a task team.
They say they are not politically aligned, and will continue protesting and throwing faeces.
The task team’s secretary, Phaphamani Ngcingi, said the protests would continue.
The task team’s spokesman, Sithembele Majova, said the group’s role would be to “interact with the relevant people” and to “lead and co-ordinate” them against the city’s sanitation resolutions.
The group warned that the protests would “be worse”.
It said the protests over the past four weeks had had an impact “even on the most ignorant person”.
“The mere fact that the N2 is packed with metro police every 5km since that Monday morning simply means that the Western Cape government is more worried about the few elite who are fortunate enough to use this route daily,” the task team’s statement read.
The team demanded the protesters in custody be released immediately or the province would be made “ungovernable”.
It said the police were provoking residents by arresting protesters. That ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla and former councillor Andile Lili remained in custody did not “weaken’’ their “struggle in rejecting portable flush toilets”.
The city has agreed to engage with the group if they are serious about improving services.
The mayoral committee member for human settlements, Ernest Sonnenberg, said the city would engage with any group or organisation that was genuinely interested in improving service delivery.
“However, we cannot engage with organisations that promote breaking the laws of the country to raise their issues,” he added.
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