Rondebosch Common Protest

COSATU condemns the arrest of Mario Wanza, and the attempt by the City to stop people from Protesting at Rondebosch Common. The city is undermining people's constitutional right to protest against any issues that they feel aggrieved about.  For the Mayor to try and criminalise this protest is just absurd, and seems more like an attempt to keep black people out of Rondebosch, where the Premier's family home is.

For the City to misuse the law in this way to placate the Premier is violating the law and using the City institutions to silence people with a different political point of view. But this is also the clearest indication yet that Mayor De Lille is just there to defend the apartheid privilege of certain communities, against the interest of Cape flats people.

The march was always a pretence occupation, to raise the plight of the homeless and the lack of integration of housing in the city. The civic association, as well as the Councillor of the area, had no objection to the protest and in fact shared the sentiments of the protesting organisations.

COSATU will be holding a protest on the Common on Saturday 4 February from 10h00 to 12h00, to support the demands for housing and communities and areas that are racially integrated. We will also have the local Rondebosch organisations there so we can explain to them that there is no attempt at violence or illegality, or hostility to the local community.

The Mayor's statement in council about the protestors was clearly an attempt to justify the hard-handed approach of the police, and to curtail freedom of expression. How could a hundred people protesting peacefully ever threaten the civil order of a city of millions of inhabitants?

Statement issued by Mike Louw and Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape, January 27 2012

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter