Cape Town - Hundreds of Ses’khona supporters marched to Cape Town Station on Thursday, despite their two most prominent leaders being absent.
One leader, Andile Lili, was being treated in Tygerberg Hospital after being shot and wounded in the stomach and arm outside his home in Makhaza on Wednesday night in an alleged “assassination attempt”, while the other, Loyiso Nkohla, was attending to his seriously ill mother.
Lili and Nkohla were both supposed to appear alongside seven other Ses’khona members in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on charges of violating the Civil Aviation Act.
They are accused of dumping human waste at the departures terminal of Cape Town International Airport last year.
According to the clerk of the court, the matter was postponed to Thursday, when the trial will proceed, depending on Lili’s condition.
On Thursday, Ses’khona spokesman Sithembele Majoba repeated his belief that the attack on Lili was politically motivated.
“He was shot on the eve of the march. This intimidation of Andile Lili raises concern for us. We have to defend our leader, because after Andile, who’s next?”
Lili’s brother, Mpucuko Nguzo, said the attackers had not attempted to rob Lili, and meant to harm their target.
“It is the ANC leadership that is the first suspect,” he claimed.
While the shattered glass from Lili’s car window still lay in the street where he was shot, residents travelled into the city by car and train to attend the protest march.
Far from the mayhem wreaked by Ses’khona marches previously in the CBD, Thursday’s demonstration was well-organised and peaceful.
Elevated on the back of a flatbed truck, Ses’khona members led cheers and songs.
The purpose of the protest was twofold: to hand a memorandum to Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) in connection with jobs, and second, to march to the ANC’s head offices on Adderley Street to demand that provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile be expelled from the party.
Ses’khona succeeded in handing over the memorandum, in the hopes that a partnership could be established with the rail agency.
The memorandum said it called on Transport Minister Dipuo Peters to expand Prasa’s budget so that the state enterprise could offer more jobs to unemployed people. In exchange, the newly employed force could contribute to improving the rail service, reducing vandalism and improving station environments.
Majoba said Ses’khona’s proposal made to Prasa would create 25 000 jobs.
Regional Metrorail head Richard Walker signed receipt of the memorandum on behalf of Prasa and promised to pass it to the parastatal’s management.
However, the march to the ANC offices was abandoned after police formed a barricade of vehicles and officers in riot gear along the border of Adderley Street.
“We are not happy that we didn’t get to reach the ANC offices,” Majoba said.
Ses’khona supported the ANC nationally and provincially, but disagreed with Mjongile’s leadership.
One poster read: “Songezo must be expelled for killing ANC in the Western Cape”.
Majoba accused Mjongile of interfering in the proposed partnership with Prasa, saying the ANC leader had e-mailed Prasa to discourage them from allying with Ses’khona.
“Songezo is a useless individual who is meddling in the affairs of parastatals. He tried to stop the partnership we’ve made.”
The march dispersed peacefully without incident.
- Additional reporting by Natasha Prince
Cape Argus