Cape Town - It was almost a normal Friday morning in Cape Town , despite fears that protesters from informal settlements would defy a High Court interdict and go ahead with an illegal march on the CBD.
March organisers Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili have announced that they and their supporters will join Seskona People’s Rights, an organisation which apparently has a permit to march on Monday, in a “peaceful” march on the CBD.
At publication time a forum called “The Golden Triangle” - comprising the SA Police Service, the City of Cape Town and the applicant - where the adjudication of all applications to march is held - was still deliberating. But any decision could still be challenged in the courts, if any of the parties were unhappy.
Richard Bosman, the City’s Safety and Security director, said the traffic volume and commuter influx into town on Friday morning was normal.
“There were a few gatherings in the early hours, in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha. These were however, met with a strong police presence and the groups had dispersed by around 4am,” he said.
Police spokesman FC van Wyk said police were deployed in large numbers across the city, but there had been no action by the marchers.
Instead, police had used their presence in key areas to conduct additional anti-crime operations, including searching vehicles.
A particularly large contingent of law enforcement agencies’ members remained stationed at the Mew Way/N2 intersection on Friday and Bosman said their officers would remain in place all day.
However, after days of threats by the march’s leadership, most of the CBD’s informal traders did not open their stalls. St George’s Mall was eerily devoid of informal stalls and the bustle of tourists that accompanies the trading on a typical spring morning.
At Greenmarket Square on Friday morning, only three of the normal 200 stalls had opened shop.
Instead, police had transformed the square into a base for their tactical response team which was monitoring the CBD. Some of the officers and vehicles had come from as far afield as East London.
On the fringes of the square a group of frustrated traders gathered. They told the Cape Argus that they could not trade because their communal merchandise storerooms had been locked because of the strike threats.
“They have messed with us, saying that the march is on and next minute saying that the march is off. It’s a Friday, its the end of the month, it’s summer. I am going to lose more than a thousand rand because of this,” a trader, who asked not to be named, told the Cape Argus.
Michael Bagraim, of the Cape Chamber of Commerce, said most shops and restaurants in the city centre had opened.
“Yet, I have received reports of a slow start to business because many of the buying public - who usually make Friday a shopping day and who have recently received their month-end salaries - have stayed away from the CBD. These are losses to income that can never be regained,” he said.
He accused the march organisers of “treason” and “terrorism” for the successful fear-mongering they had indulged in over the past few days.
“It is a classic case of undermining democracy via empty threats. Unfortunately, the public and the municipality bought into this hysteria,” he said.
March organisers Loyiso Nkohla and Andile Lili held a joint press conference with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the steps of St George’s cathedral on Friday morning.
Tutu congratulated the pair for having called off the march and said that church leaders would like to meet with the informal settlements leadership to discuss their grievances and to facilitate dialogues with government. The grievances relate to land and housing for informal settlement residents.
Tutu asked the march leaders Nkohla and Lili to apologise for the carnage and looting associated with another march earlier this month. The pair reluctantly agreed and apologised publicly.
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