Poo protester linked to Lwandle fraud?

Cape Town-140717-Da's Makashule Gana flanked by Thandeka Gqada, left and Tania Baker, right, arrive at Cape Town Central Police Station to lay charges against the Poo throwers who were aquitted of all charges yesterday-Reporter-Kieran Legg-Photographer-Tracey Adams

Cape Town-140717-Da's Makashule Gana flanked by Thandeka Gqada, left and Tania Baker, right, arrive at Cape Town Central Police Station to lay charges against the Poo throwers who were aquitted of all charges yesterday-Reporter-Kieran Legg-Photographer-Tracey Adams

Published Jul 18, 2014

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Cape Town - Poo protester Andile Lili is set to face yet another charge after the DA filed evidence implicating his organisation in a housing fraud scheme in Lwandle.

At the Cape Town police station, DA spokesman for Human Settlements Makashule Gana held on to a folder of papers on Thursday, flanked by members of his department.

But hopes of laying the charge quickly were dashed when a burly policeman told the MEC to queue “like everyone else”.

According to Gana’s spokeswoman Ntomboxolo Makoba, the evidence included statements made by Lwandle residents who claimed members of the Ses’Khona Human Rights Movement had sold plots of land from which hundreds of people were later evicted last month.

“Many have paid as much as R500,” said Makoba.

The documents include pictures as well as the results of an investigation of the alleged fraud. Sometimes the same plot was sold over and over again.

The charges have been levelled at Ses’Khona’s leadership, which includes Andile Lili.

Lili has a list of court dates on his calendar. He is facing charges for poo protests near the airport and outside the provincial legislature.

But after his “not guilty” verdict on Wednesday, when a Cape Town magistrate decided there was nothing connecting the leader to buckets of faeces being transported in a train last year, he welcomed the new case.

“It’s becoming clear that they want to tarnish my name,” he said. “They can see that we as an organisation are growing, and they are scared.”

He said he could not afford an attorney if the charges reached court, but he was not worried. “There is no basis to these allegations, I would never ever steal from people.”

He lashed out at local government for spending more money on pursuing another “futile” court case.

Wednesday’s case was thrown out because of a lack of concrete evidence.

He predicted a similar result this time. “When I sue them they will see how you win a court case.”

Meanwhile, mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the City of Cape Town would never apologise to Lili and Loyiso Nkhohla, who is also a prominent Ses’Khona member.

“They seem to have forgotten that they still face several criminal cases related to their conduct.

“Andile Lile and Loyiso Nkohla owe thousands of people in the city an apology and restitution for the approximately R23 million in damages they caused as well as the destruction of essential services to poor communities.

“Their actions meant that valuable policing and emergency services resources had to be diverted away from communities desperately in need of their assistance - including incurring millions of rands’ worth of overtime - in order to deal with illegal actions by Lili and Nkohla.

“This is funding which could have been used for additional policing operations in gang-ravaged areas.”

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Cape Argus

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