Cape Town - Former ANC councillor and suspended youth league member Andile Lili was among 184 protesters arrested in Woodstock on their way to the provincial legislature on Monday to dump more human waste outside Premier Helen Zille’s office.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said that at Woodstock station, 184 suspects aged between 18 and 40 were removed from the train bound for Cape Town from Chris Hani station in Khayelitsha.
They were charged with contravening the Gatherings Act, failing to give notice of a protest, contravening a court order, violating the Health Care Act by transporting hazardous material (human faeces on public transport), and for travelling without a valid train ticket, he said.
They would be released on a warning to appear in court.
But the arrests did not stop another group, led by ANC proportional councillor and youth league member, Loyiso Nkohla from emptying portaloo tanks full of raw sewage in the foyer of the provincial government offices in Greenmarket Square, at the offices of Sport MEC and DA provincial leader Ivan Meyer, and Agriculture MEC Gerrit van Rensburg.
Nkohla said the “poor war” against Zille would “intensify” over the coming days.
“The police can arrest us but we are still going to fight. We won’t back down until we get answers from Zille,” Nkohla said shortly after a group of them, including Proudly Manenberg’s Mario Wanza, spilled the contents of portaloo containers on to the ground, to show Zille that “we will find other ways to carry our message across”.
Wanza is facing a court interdict preventing him from “threatening, harassing and assaulting” city officials and contractors providing services on behalf of the city.
Wanza said he was approached by people from different human settlements using portaloos.
“We are calling on Zille to do the right thing and provide people with houses and decent toilets,” he said.
The “faeces war” against the Zille started last Monday when a group led by Nkohla and Lili dumped human waste outside the legislature. They also flung human waste at Zille’s convoy after an official event in Khayelitsha on Wednesday.
At the Esplanade train station in Woodstock police in full riot gear seized three crates with sealed green bags full of faeces.
The protesters sang Struggle songs and asked the police to shoot them or arrest them all. Lili said Zille was violating their human right to protest.
“As soon as we are released, faeces are going to fly again, wherever she (Zille) goes we will there. She is a very dangerous woman who does not care for black people and she must go,” Lili said from a police van.
Zak Mbhele, Zille’s spokesman, said police acted in a “co-ordinated and swift manner to prevent an illegal gathering that would have been a repeat of last Monday’s disgusting incident...”
ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman said Lili and Nkohla were representing legitimate grievances.
Fransman declined to comment on whether the pair would be brought before a disciplinary committee since such a process could “prejudice recommendations and processes that would influence the ANC’s decision”. – Additional reporting by Daneel Knoetze.
Cape Argus