|
Sisulu challenges CT protesters
10/09/2007 15:25 - (SA)
Cape Town - National Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has issued an ultimatum to the Cape Town shack dwellers whose violent protest on Monday led to the closure of the N2 highway.
She said residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement had to decide whether they wanted to co-operate with government and qualify for housing.
"If they choose not to co-operate, they will be removed completely from all housing waiting lists," she said in a statement.
She also said the government would not tolerate indiscriminate violence where property was vandalised.
Earlier, the protesters set up a burning barricade just off the N2, stoned police and their vehicles, broke up dwellings under construction in the N2 Gateway project alongside Joe Slovo and set a bakery delivery van alight.
Police closed both lanes of the highway for a period which included the morning traffic peak.
They were apparently protesting against a proposal to move them to temporary housing at Delft, some distance away on the Cape Flats, to make room for further Gateway construction.
Sisulu said the Gateway project management had been interacting with residents, and the violence was "completely unjustified".
She said that according to the police, some of the protesters had identified themselves as members of the Pan Africanist Congress.
"If indeed this was a PAC protest, it would confirm our worst suspicion that opportunistic individuals and/or parties are using Cape Town's housing crisis to their advantage," she said.
The Anti-Eviction Campaign described the situation at the protest as "absolutely terrible".
It said police had opened fire on the protesters at close range with rubber bullets.
"They shot women and children and people are seriously injured. Dozens of residents have been arrested and the police are refusing to say where they have taken these residents even though some are injured."
|
