Four arrested for holding cop

2003-02-24 18:25

Cape Town - Police arrested four people on Monday after they allegedly held a 28-year-old female police constable hostage throughout the night in the informal settlement of Andile Nose in Khayelitsha.

Police spokesperson Captain Etienne Terblanche said the woman was released at 06:00 on Monday and was treated for minor injuries.

Her boss, Khayelitsha station commander Director Rasimati Shivuri, negotiated with the group throughout the night.

The drama began when undercover police officers monitored a Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC) meeting attended by about 400 people late on Sunday night.

The group was meeting to discuss several issues relating to newly-built houses which they claim were shoddy when they were handed over to them.

Members of the AEC have protested to banks on a number of occasions that they had difficulty repaying loans for the houses from various banks.

The Mandela Park AEC said the houses were at best "the basic minimum" that every person should have a right to, but Mandela Park and other areas in Khayelitsha, had seen the full force of the state imposed on them to evict people from their houses to safeguard a "secure lending environment" for private sector banks.

Terblanche said the woman was taken hostage by a small group of people after an AEC activist Max Ntanyana, for whom a warrant of arrest was outstanding, was arrested.

Ntanyana appeared in the Khayelitsha magistrate's court on Monday for ignoring a previous court order regarding his bail conditions.

He is being held in custody and will appear in court again on Wednesday.

The four people arrested would face charges of abduction, assault and the pointing of a firearm.

- SAPA