40 held after Cape Town rampage

2006-05-16 20:10

Cape Town - Forty people, including two union leaders, were arrested as striking security guards engaged police in running battles in a violent pay protest in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Strikers caused widespread damage, and several people were injured when police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the unruly crowd of about 5 000.

Tony Ehrenreich, Western Cape secretary of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), and Evan Abrahams, Western Cape secretary of the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu), were among those arrested.

Satawu spokesperson Jackson Simon said: "Their bail application will be heard tomorrow (Wednesday)."

Dozens of shop windows were broken, goods looted and cars smashed as the strikers made their way to parliament to hand over a memorandum in support of demands for better wages and working conditions.

Shots heard around city centre

At least one journalist covering the march, under the Satawu banner, was assaulted by protesters.

After handing the memorandum to officials at parliament, the group started breaking up, running in different directions, pursued by police.

Shots could be heard around the central city for some time afterwards.

One marcher struck by what appeared to be a rubber bullet, "went down like a ton of bricks", said a witness.

Earlier, marchers, many armed with steel pipes, sticks and pick-axe handles, ripped off windscreen wipers and mirrors from cars parked in Plein Street outside parliament.

They smashed windows of cars and shops, grabbing merchandise.

'We'll be back'

Some used uprooted road signs to vandalise cars, while others kicked in doors. Their fellow marchers ignored them.

Some were seen making threatening gestures at bystanders.

"We'll be back," marchers told a shop-owner as they shattered his shop window.

Ehrenreich addressed the crowd outside the main gates, calling for marchers to be disciplined.

Only metres away from the platform on which he stood, glass from broken shop and vehicle windows lay mixed with litter from overturned rubbish bins.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille and party councillor Simon Grindrod took cover behind the steel gates of a Plein Street entrance to parliament as strikers threw stones at the adjacent buildings.

100 vehicles damaged

De Lille said: "I think this strike has gone on too long. People are beginning to lose sympathy with the strikers.

"A solution must be found. Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana must intervene."

Shocked car owners, meanwhile, shook their heads in disbelief as they approached their smashed vehicles.

Police captain Randall Stoffels said about 100 vehicles had been damaged.

Cars were damaged in Keizergracht, Darling, Adderley, Plein, Roeland and Buitenkant streets.

Stoffels did not have figures on the number of businesses targeted nor the extent of the damage.

Journo's leg gashed open

Two police were injured by stone-throwers, and at least four protesters were taken to hospital after being hit by rubber bullets, said Stoffels.

Earlier, a Sapa journalist was attacked by protesters as he was covering the march through the city centre.

Reporter Wendell Roelf was hit on the head with a sjambok, had a deep gash in one leg, and was pelted with rocks. He was taken to hospital, where his leg was stitched.

Soon after the start of the march, police acted against marchers as they overturned food and vegetable stalls.

One group rampaged through the Church Street open-air antique market, overturning stalls and smashing shop windows there and in adjoining Long Street.

Items snatched from flea markets

Church Street shop owner Colin Sayers said he received a warning from a jewellery shop owner around the corner, and closed his security gate.

"This crowd rushed up Church Street, and... it happened so quickly... you have these tables outside, people with collectibles, they had their tables turned over and smashed, items stolen."

The nearby Greenmarket Square flea market was virtually deserted on Tuesday afternoon when stallholders shut up shop after a group of men ran through the market seizing goods.

Stoffels said the 38 arrested men and two women would appear in Cape Town magistrate's court on Wednesday on charges of public violence and contravening the Gatherings Act,.

Previous Satawu marches in Cape Town and other cities have also been marred by violence by striking guards.

Political parties condemned the strikers' action, with Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson asking for an urgent debate in the national assembly on the march.

DA leader Tony Leon said Cosatu's proposed march in the city on Thursday should be cancelled, because it was clear the unions were behaving in a grossly irresponsible fashion and could not control their members.

ACDP 'deplores violence'

Satawu also should be held criminally responsible for the misconduct of its members, he said.

The African Christian Democratic Party's Steve Swart said it was deplorable that strikers should resort to violence or destruction of property because their demands were not being met.

"The ACDP appreciates that many of the striking workers are making what they believe to be legitimate claims regarding salary benefits.

"However, we condemn in the strongest possible terms injury to persons, the destruction of shops, property and motor vehicles," he said.

The Cape Town Central City Improvement District condemned what it said was the "unacceptable barbaric behaviour" of the strikers, and called on the city and police to oppose all future Satawu marches.

It also called on members of the public and private businesses whose property was damaged to institute civil claims against Satawu.

- SAPA