Anti-eviction forces, accompanied by the City Police and SAPS, invaded the community at Hangberg in Hout Bay on Tuesday 21 September to demolish poor people's homes. Then the community held a post-mortem meeting on Thursday 23 September to discuss what had taken place.
Different organisation, political parties, trade union members, religious groups and various associations came to bandage the wounds of this society. They all expressed dismay at the brutality shown by police, reminiscent of the apartheid era. Many people shared their painful stories that day, and in anger vowed to recover the dignity the City of Cape Town robbed them of and to take the future of their own lives to their own hands.
Fr Frans the popular Anglican Church priest in the community said the church is the bone for the suffering flesh of the people, especially the poor. He narrated how at some stage they demanded access to the police armour-plated Nyala and they were refused on some flimsy cock and bull story of the hydraulics not working properly. The priest had information that the police had a fourteen year old girl inside the vehicle, a fact that was categorically denied by the police officers in the vehicle. Eventually the vehicle was opened, and true as the rising sun, there was the girl scared as a trapped bird and looking as though she had been abused.
There were other testimonies of the police abusing the elderly in their homes and taking them to gaol on pretentious charges of public violence. Most people who were caught out by police fire were those who were not part of the protest, some even lost their eyes trying to protect school children. People vowed not to allow the government officials to divide them but pledged to stand together as a community united.
The sad part is that what that day has managed to do was to first divide the community of Hout Bay, and then initiate a muted race war. For instance, when the violence subsided on Wednesday, Hangberg community residents saw white folks bring tea, coffee and pastries for the police whilst they sat in their casspirs, nyalas and vans. This disgusted the brutalised community who felt invaded and humiliated by the police.
Secondly, the invasion stripped the community of Hangberg of their right to shelter, threatened their health and further interrupted their right to schooling. These rights are all guaranteed in our constitution, yet were freely violated by the city officials. Hence the Community are now calling for the National Minister of Co-operative Government, Shiceka, to institute a judicial inquiry and subpoena whoever was involved in planning, coordinating and executing the invasion to the Hangberg on Tuesday. It was obvious that this was meticulously planned operation, nothing happened by chance that day. The South African people deserve to know the true motivates of that invasion and not be fobbed off by the false excuses of the Premier regarding firebreaks and alleged interference with mountain rain water run-off.