Airport poo throwers to hear fate

Nine men who emptied buckets of human waste at the entrance of the departure hall at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago have been sentenced. File picture: COURTNEY AFRICA

Nine men who emptied buckets of human waste at the entrance of the departure hall at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago have been sentenced. File picture: COURTNEY AFRICA

Published Aug 18, 2015

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Cape Town – Nine men who emptied buckets of human waste at the entrance of the departure hall at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago are to be sentenced on Wednesday.

The nine men men, which included African National Congress Western Cape provincial executive member and community activist Andile Lili, appeared in the Bellville Regional Court on Tuesday, where the prosecution and defence presented their closing arguments during sentencing procedures, before magistrate Nonkosi Saba.

The incident happened on June 25, 2013. The nine were convicted of contravening the Civil Aviation Act in February this year.

The defence team, advocate Pearl Mathibela and attorney Ntuthuko Msomi, urged the court not to jail the men, but to impose suspended prison sentences or correctional supervision involving house arrest only, but not prison.

Much of the day’s proceedings were taken up by Mathibela outlining the personal circumstances of all nine men, which included their backgrounds, occupations and the frustrations that led to their behaviour.

Their conduct was not malicious, but was intended to make the public generally aware of their frustrations, she said.

According to the charge sheet, the accused were all residents of informal housing settlements which fell within the jurisdiction of the City of Cape Town.

The housing settlements were provided with portable toilets, but a dispute had arisen between the nine accused and the City over the latter’s perceived neglect of sanitation.

The perceived neglect included the infrequent and irregular removal of human waste, in accordance with procedures agreed to between the City and the service provider, the charge sheet said.

Mathibela said the incident was not a run-of-the-mill offence, and the sentence imposed had to take into account the frustrations that motivated the men to participate in the throwing of human waste.

The provision of portable toilets had violated their constitutional right to human dignity, she said.

Mathibela said seven of the men had already endured prison conditions, as they had been incarcerated for about a month before being released on bail.

She said imposing a prison sentence did not serve the interests of society.

“All the men wanted to do was to highlight the plights of their communities,” Mathibela said.

During her closing arguments, prosecutor Natasha Moshodi suggested a suspended prison sentence, coupled with correctional supervision involving house arrest.

Moshodi told the court this was the first time that an offence of this nature had been prosecuted in the country.

The incident had political undertones, and the accused acted in flagrant disregard for the rights of others, even damaging property at the airport, she argued.

Moshodi conceded that the nine men had every right to highlight their grievances, but said in doing so they could not violate the rights of others.

She said all nine men were first time offenders, as far as the incident was concerned, but they did not fully appreciate the unlawfulness of their behaviour.

As leaders, the men were more enlightened than many in their communities, and this made their behaviour all the more serious.

She said the legislature did not envisage this kind of behaviour, when the Civil Aviation Act was promulgated.

The men are out on R2000 bail each.

ANA

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