Francesca Villette and Xolani Koyana
A DAY after ANC national executive committee member Bheki Cele called for poo protests to be extended to rich white suburbs, human faeces were found strewn along a main road in Rondebosch.
Cele, who was campaigning for the ANC, told supporters at a Ses’khona event in Philippi on Sunday that people using portable toilets should give “a taste to those communities that have no luck of experiencing Porta Potties”.
Yesterday, the city’s director of safety and security, Richard Bosman, said he had received a call from a resident at 4pm after what appeared to be human faeces had been found dumped along Belmont Road bridge.
No one has been held accountable yet, with Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement, notorious for throwing poo at Cape Town International Airport, denying involvement.
Ses’khona spokesman Sithembele Majova said yesterday none of their members were “mandated” to dump faeces.
“Ses’khona had nothing to do with that. I didn’t even know about such a thing until now. If this really did happen and this act is associated with Ses’khona then that it is incorrect. It could be a set-up.
“This could be the work of someone who is trying to use the statements made by Bheki Cele to discredit the organisation,” Majova said.
Bosman said the city had sent a team from the water and sanitation department to
clean up the faeces along the road.
“By all accounts it appears that the faeces was dumped there.
“It was strewn on the side of the road,” he said.
Bosman said he had instructed the clean-up team to look out for portable toilets or items that could have been used to carry the substance but there was no sign of any.
“I have asked the team on site to take pictures and we will have the matter investigated. We will go to the police to report it,” Bosman added.
He said that the area near the bridge did not have CCTV footage, making the tracing of a culprit an impossible task. At the moment there were no witnesses because the bridge was mainly used by motorists.
Yesterday pedestrians were forced to walk close to the faeces as the busy bridge did not allow them much room around it.