Night in cells for union chiefs

2006-05-16 23:15

Staff reporters

Cape Town - Several leaders of the striking security guards who created mayhem and destruction in the city centre on Tuesday had to spend the night behind bars before they were due to appear in court on Wednesday morning on charges of public violence.

Police captain Randall Stoffels confirmed that 38 men and two women had been arrested on Tuesday.

Although he did not want to mention names, it seemed they were mainly leaders of the SA Allied and Transport Workers Union (Satawu).

The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) negotiated vainly on Tuesday night in an attempt to prevent its provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich from spending the night behind bars.

Zwelinzima Vavi and Patrick Craven of Cosatu condemned the violence and, at the same time, demanded the release of trade union leaders.

Trouble started at station

Broken windows, badly damaged cars and stunned shop owners bore testimony to a day of terror.

Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas against the marchers who took their protest up to the gates of the country's parliament.

The chaos lasted from about 10:30 when the trail of destruction began at the station.

Pedestrians were assaulted and robbed, windows were systematically and deliberately shattered and damage caused - and the arrested suspects will be charged in court for this.

While helicopters droned in the sky, the eastern city centre was turned into a war zone from Long Street to Buitenkant Street.

Transfixed with fear

For about an hour and a half, shots sounded sporadically and the screams of fleeing people echoed from buildings lining the narrow streets.

Groups of marchers alternated between attacking and fleeing, and people stared transfixed with fear from their offices and shops at the mayhem in the streets.

Police cordoned off the parliamentary buildings and barricaded all entrances. No strikers got into the precincts of parliament, but shots resounded in the streets around the complex.

In Spin Street, terrified employees of Idasa and a travel agency told how marchers armed with baseball bats, sticks and sjamboks appeared around the corner of Adderley Street.

They immediately used their weapons to damage phone booths and cars.

Police forced the group to a halt at the corner of Plein Street by firing rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas.

Used building-site bricks

This caused chaos in the protest march, which stopped for an instant and then strikers fled in all directions.

Groups of marchers began kicking out shop windows and picked up bricks from a building site on Church Square.

Bricks were thrown at police, buildings and fleeing members of the public, witnesses told Die Burger.

While chaos continued in all directions, most of the protesters marched up Plein Street. Shots were also heard later from the Buitenkant Street area.

Not one car in the streets around the parliamentary building was left unscathed.

Lights and windows were shattered and at least one security-guard hut at parking lots was completely destroyed.

Stoffels said that while Capetonians might be nervous about Thursday's Cosatu protest march, police and metro police would join forces to ensure ''maximum deployment''.

Zille to 'pick up the pieces'

With many of its leaders in custody, Satawu's national security co-ordinator, Jackson Simon, was not sure of the precise events and did not want to comment on the vandalism.

But, he did confirm that Thursday's protest march would go ahead.

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille is to announce on Wednesday morning how the city will try to recover the damages from the trade union.

- Die Burger