Cape Town - Angry Masiphumelele residents caused chaos in Simon’s Town and Glencairn on Friday when they marched through the suburbs, with police firing a smoke grenade at one point which caused the protesters to flee into an upmarket area.
Late last night, at the time of publication, a large police contingent was monitoring the informal settlement
in case of flare-ups of more violence and will continue doing so today.
Some residents are angry one of their leaders Lubabalo Vellem, 35, was arrested last Thursday and held in custody.
Vellem applied for bail in the Simon’s Town Magistrate’s Court on Friday, but the matter was postponed to Monday.
A group of residents, infuriated that Vellem was not freed, marched from the court building where they had protested for his release and made their way back to Masiphumelele on foot.
And that was when the chaos broke out.
After Friday’s postponement Vellem turned to the public gallery in court and urged residents there not to protest.
Other community leaders also urged the hundreds of residents gathered outside the court to remain calm.
But a small group then broke away.
Police struggled to control the group of about 100 people and officers ran to shops in Main Road, Simon’s Town, warning them the protesters were coming.
“Close up, right now,” they shouted.
Shoppers then ran outside and to their cars, while workers peeked nervously from inside locked stores.
At the turn-off to Glencairn, police fired a smoke grenade at protesters who blocked the road. They then ran between the home and to a shopping complex.
“What’s happening? Help,” one of the shoppers screamed.
Vellem faces charges of murder, attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, and inciting public violence.
He intends pleading not guilty to all the charges.
During Friday’s court proceedings it emerged eight people had been murdered in Masiphumelele since the middle of September, and that Vellem was believed to be the ring leader behind mob killings and violent protests in the area.
Some of the violent acts he is alleged to have been involved in were detailed, including how police managed to save a man who was being necklaced.
A picture also emerged of fighting among residents in the form of retaliatory mob attacks.
Testifying in his own defence, Vellem said that before his arrest he had been staying at a home along the main road in Masiphumelele for a week.
This was because his home had burnt down.
He said he was not sure what had caused the fire. But State prosecutor Gift Hina said residents wanted to kill Vellem, and had set his home alight.
“The State is going to lead evidence that actually the community doesn’t want you there,” he said.
This upset residents in the public gallery, who shouted their support for Vellem.
Vellem insisted he was not a community leader but rather the head of a smaller group of residents, the Masiphumelele Backyarders and Informal Settlement Forum.
But the investigating officer in the case, Siyasanga Maputuka, testified that Vellem was an influential community leader.
He testified that the situation was so volatile in Masiphumelele a resident threatened him, saying if he entered the informal settlement he would be killed.
Maputuka said the crimes Vellem was accused of started hours after 14-year-old Amani Pula was murdered and apparently raped in his home in Masiphumelele.
At 1.10am on September 15, he said, Vellem, with a group of residents, went to the home of a resident, Mkululi.
“(Vellem) took Mkululi out the house to the community. He sprayed his pepper spray in the house and closed the gate.”
The resident was then assaulted so severely that he died at the scene.
In another incident on September 15, Maputuka said a group of residents tried to find Amani’s rapist and targeted a man. “They killed the guy and he was innocent. They used stones and hanged him.”
On September 20, Vellem allegedly led a group to a resident named Lucky, who they believed was selling drugs.
“They took him and hit him against the shack. (Vellem) had an iron rod. The one was carrying an axe, another a stick,” Maputuka testified.
Lucky was beaten and forced to say who he was selling drugs for.
Police saved Lucky after residents tried to necklace him.
The man he allegedly sold drugs for was killed.
Maputuka testified that he feared that releasing Vellem on bail would disrupt the Masiphumelele community.
Weekend Argus
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