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Zille to sue over arrest
09/09/2007 23:17 - (SA)
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| DA leader Helen Zille leaves the Mitchell's Plain police station after being charged with contravening the Gatherings Act. (Damien Schumann, Die Burger) |
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Staff reporters, Die Burger
Cape Town - DA leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille plans to sue the South African Police Service after being arrested in Mitchell's Plain on Sunday night.
She and protest action leader Moulana Armine Maker were arrested in terms of the Regulation of Gatherings Act.
Zille was freed shortly after 20:00 but Maker was still in custody when the newspaper went to print on Sunday night.
An upset Zille said: "This reminds me of the dark days of apartheid. We did nothing wrong. It's a set-up."
According to her there were definite political overtones, but she did not want to expand on them.
DA councillor Grant Pascoe told Reuters that Zille was arrested after she went to a police station to enquire about Maker's arrest. She and other marchers were given three minutes to disperse from the station because police said it was an illegal gathering, he said.
Earlier, Zille was calm as she waited at Mitchell's Plain police station to be charged, and related how the city's first citizen had come to be arrested:
Legal march
"At 14:00 we began a legal march to smokkelhuise (places where drugs are sold). We had the necessary permission for the protest march.
"After we had visited a few smokkelhuise and handed over petitions against drug-trafficking, we arrived at another one. The police arrested a moulana (Armien Maker) without any grounds - we were on the pavement and had not trespassed on any property."
"The protesters moved to the police station, where they gathered in the parking area. I was busy with an attorney and went to the parking area to get names of witnesses who had seen the moulana being arrested.
"Then the police arrested a few of the protesters. When I went into the charge office they said I should leave because I was not under arrest. When I got outside, they told me to go back inside again, because now I was under arrest."
When Die Burger spoke to Zille at 19:00, she was still waiting for the charges against her to be formulated.
'This is a farce'
She was in an office with two police officers: "Ag no, a lot of worse things have happened to me. This is a farce. It was a legal protest march and no regulations were broken. It's just the next action with a political motive that follows on a political appointment as the chief of police," Zille said.
Zille planned to file counter-charges of being detained illegally, and malicious prosecution.
There was a tense atmosphere outside the police station while she was inside, with a crowd of about 100 gathered in the parking lot.
Among those present were deputy mayor Charlotte Williams and Martin Fienies, mayoral committee member for health.
Reporting by Liezl Dyson, Eugene Gunning and Jan-Jan Joubert
- Die Burger
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