House arrest for airport poo throwers

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 19, 2015

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Cape Town - The nine men who emptied buckets of watery human waste over the floor of the departure hall at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago, were sentenced to three years of house arrest on Wednesday.

They appeared in the Bellville Regional Court, before magistrate Nonkosi Saba, who also sentenced them to three years jail, conditionally suspended for five years.

They were sentenced for violating the Civil Aviation Act.

The conditions were that they do not again empty buckets of human waste at the airport, or at any other public places.

If any of them do, within the three-year period of suspension, the suspended sentence was likely to be put into operation, in addition to the sentence imposed for the new offence, the magistrate warned.

The sentence was in line with that suggested by prosecutor Natasha Moshodi.

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 other residents over the City’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.

The magistrate said she identified with their plight, but that there were other, lawful, means of addressing their grievances and expressing their frustrations.

She said the emptying of buckets containing human waste at an airport had to be viewed in a serious light.

It caused a disruption at the airport, in the sense that the affected area had to be cordoned off and cleaned.

“Your actions, no matter what the reasons, can never be condoned,” she told them.

The magistrate said the men all came from impoverished backgrounds, and the purpose for their behavior was to highlight their plight to the world at large.

They were not a danger to their communities, she said.

She said she had, at some stage, wondered how they had managed to carry buckets of human waste all the way to the airport.

Their actions were not only an embarrassment, but also infringed the constitutional rights of innocent people to human dignity.

ANA

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