City turned into war zone


By Caryn Dolley, Andy Shlensky and Melanie Gosling

Hundreds of striking security guards went on the rampage through the city centre yesterday, smashing shop windows, looting goods, trashing cars and overturning street-vendors' stalls.

Police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades into the mob and arrested two union leaders after they had lost control of the 5 000 South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) members who were marching to parliament.

Thirty eight people were arrested for public violence and one for contravening the Public Gathering Act and will appear in Cape Town Magistrate's Court today, according to police spokesman Randall Stoffels.

Cosatu regional secretary Tony Ehrenreich and Satawu regional secretary Evan Abrahamse were among those arrested. Both were expected to spend last night in jail.

As Ehrenreich was bundled into a police van, he shouted: "We just want to help Satawu, but here we are arrested."

As the violence was condemned by political parties, business and the public, the Cape Town City Council said last night it intended taking legal action against Satawu.

Mayoral spokesman Robert Macdonald said: "We obviously can't allow this kind of thing to just happen and nothing to be done about it."

City officials confirmed that the marchers had been given permission to protest.

Shattered glass littered city streets and most shops, banks and fast-food outlets had closed their doors and lowered security grilles.

Informal traders, fearing further damage and theft, packed up what was left of their wares, and the station fleamarket, Greenmarket Square and Church Street antique market were deserted.

Said Metro police spokesman Nowellen Petersen: "A very large number, especially innocent bystanders, were assaulted and injured."

About 100 cars were smashed and at least two police officers were injured when the mob threw stones at them.

Even before the march began shop owners on the Grand Parade had begun closing their windows and dismantling their kiosks because they knew what was coming.

According to one police officer, some police had run through the city centre alerting shop and restaurant owners to close their doors and pull down their gates.

"That sure didn't stop them from doing a hell of a lot of damage," she said.

Scores of police vehicles were lined up in front of and behind the 5 000 protesters as they gathered outside the Castle of Good Hope on
Darling Street.

Satawu officials, wearing red "Striking against privatisation, arrogance and unemployment" T-shirts, struggled to control the crowd.

Although they formed a human chain in front of the group, marchers armed with sticks, planks, brooms and umbrellas broke through the cordon and started running down the street.

Speaking from the back of a truck, union leaders Ehrenreich and Abrahamse urged members to regain control, and in vain requested that they abandon their weapons.

"We're not suppressing you, but we can't march with weapons. Please, bring them here and put them down," Abrahamse said.

However, as he was speaking, at least three other groups toyi-toyied from the Civic Centre into the original gathering of Cosatu members, breaking through the linked arms to join the mob.

Officials again struggled to control the crowd, but the march was allowed to begin.

Armoured police vans slowly led the group down Darling Street while policemen armed with guns and stun grenades walked in front.

Soon after the marching began, chaos erupted as people broke through the chain of officials and began breaking windows, damaging cars and looting stores.

Though the march itself went from Darling Street to Adderley Street before heading to parliament, the chaos spread throughout the city centre.

Police fired rubber bullets in St George's Mall, Greenmarket Square and Long Street as some protesters fled to grab whatever they could as they ran through the city.

A 77-year-old man on holiday from the Philippines was thrown through a glass storefront door in the chaos.

"They grabbed my cellphone and threw me through the door," said Oscar Caluag, who is scheduled to depart from Cape Town today.

"At least I have a very good story to tell when I get home."

But those who have to stay in Cape Town were not amused.

"This protesting has most definitely got out of hand," said Olsens Pharmacy owner Graeme Sarembock, who witnessed Caluag come crashing through his front door.

"They've got no respect for anything else - things, people, lives - they just take it for themselves."

Sarembock estimated that replacing the thick glass window would cost between R1 000 and R1 500.

The bulk of the protesters turned from Adderley Street into Spin Street, where few windows went unbroken.

Andrew Njiokwuemegi, who works on the fifth floor of the Church Square Building, came down to assess the damage done to his white sedan.

"I'm not government, I'm not security, but they vandalise me anyway," Njiokwuemegi said. "What am I supposed to do, I can't fix thousands of people. There's just too many of them."

He found that the windscreen and three of the side windows had been completely shattered, which he believed would cost at least R6 000 or R7 000 to repair.

"They've got to stop this behaviour.

"It's just unacceptable."

The red bakkie with a smashed windscreen parked behind his belonged to 82-year-old Bill Herbert.

"It's an undisciplined mob and they're trying to rule the country," said Herbert, who owns Dante Coffee Shop on the corner of Plein and Spin Streets.

As the crowd turned the corner around his shop, they threw bricks and stones through the windows, breaking 10 of the wide glass panes that wall his restaurant.

"Whoever did this has to pay for this," said Herbert, who estimated at least R20 000 in damage was done to his shop.

During the chaos Herbert sheltered his customers in the kitchen, as far away from the windows as possible.

Herbert fought against Russia in World War 2 as a member of the German SS, but said that yesterday's riot was worse.

"At least on the front line you expected it. At least on the front line there are rules."

Outside his shop, South African Press Association (Sapa) reporter Wendell Roelf was stabbed in the leg by the strikers.

He said he had not seen what had caused the injury, but had been hit on the head and stabbed while making his way to the outskirts of the crowd.

He was taken to hospital where doctors inserted six
staples to close the wound.

Worried shop workers stood at their windows while police stood guard at shop doors as the marchers continued down Plein Street towards parliament.

Armed police lined the gates of parliament and used riot shields to deflect the stones flying over the fence. According to the police on site, no one was hurt on the parliamentary grounds.

The crowd reconvened outside parliament where the rampaging security guards knocked over a wooden guard's post, jumped on the bonnets of cars, smashed car windows, slashed tyres and pulled the number plates off numerous cars as their leaders called for order.

"The only way to win this war is through discipline," Ehrenreich said.

"If you've come here to steal chips or abuse people along the way, go home now."

One member of the crowd responded by yelling: "But we're hungry."

His cry was greeted with cheers.

Abrahamse delivered a one-page memorandum to "remind the employers of our outstanding wage demands".

A fight broke out between a group of about 10 strikers as Ehrenreich was addressing them, and a man ran away from the crowd after being beaten with wooden planks.

"These bosses come from the apartheid defence force and they've never recognised us as people. This struggle is a continuation of the apartheid struggle against the apartheid bosses," Ehrenreich said.

The protest left from parliament to head down Roeland Street, but calm was short-lived.

Police started firing rubber bullets at the front of the surging group, which caused a pile-up in the centre of the street but did not disperse the crowd. As they turned down Buitenkant Street, true mayhem erupted.

Screams were muffled under the bangs of rubber bullets, blasts of stun grenades and the sound of the police helicopter overhead.

Ehrenreich, who was holding his arms up and apart at the front of the crowd seemingly trying to keep police and marchers apart, but was grabbed by police officers.

They bundled the confused- looking Ehrenreich into a police van and drove away.

As some strikers threw stones at police officers, the truck with Abrahamse and other members still aboard raced through the street as marchers fled towards Cape Town Station where more rubber bullets were fired.

An uneasy calm was soon restored but weary shop owners kept their stores closed, peering nervously out of their windows.

Another Cosatu strike and Satawu demonstration is planned for tomorrow, approved by the city last month.

However, a meeting of police management is scheduled for this morning to discuss yesterday's strike and whether they plan to oppose tomorrow's strike.

Derek Bock of the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) condemned the "unacceptable barbaric behaviour of striking security officers" which had shown that Satawu had lost control over its members.

"One would expect this behaviour in a country where there was no rule of law, not in modern-day South Africa," Bock said.

Bock and DA leader Tony Leon called for tomorrow's march by Cosatu to be cancelled or postponed.

Leon said he would "encourage all affected shop owners and others whose property was damaged, to join together in a class action to recover damages from Satawu".


Published on the web by Cape Times on May 17, 2006.
© Cape Times 2006. All rights reserved.