Protesters barred staff from leaving
Spokesman for Newcastle SAPS, Captain Jabulani Ncube confirmed protestors now had the right to march peacefully, whether authority from the local municipality had been granted or not.
Mayisela disagreed, and said, “They [the protestors] blocked the entrance, and when I contacted SAPS to complain about it being an illegal march, I was told there is a document which says there are no illegal marches anymore. When I pointed out that we still needed to comply with Section 4, [SAPS] said they could not help.”
According to Mayisela, protestors remained at the entrance of the municipality for hours, saying they would not leave until they were able to hand over their memorandum to officials.
“I refused – even though I could have gone and addressed them. It would have taken me five minutes. Because it means every morning someone can come and demand that I accept a memorandum. I called the Commander of the Police Station and informed him the protestors were preventing people from coming here to pay, and they were preventing the staff from moving out of the building. He also told me there was nothing he could do.
“Seeing we were not going to get any help, and hearing the protestors were prepared to sleep here, I decided to send out my staff member, Dr [Dumisani] Thabethe, to accept their memorandum. I am already aware they are going to come back.”
Spokesman for Newcastle SAPS, Captain Jabulani Ncube confirmed protestors now had the right to march peacefully, whether authority from the local municipality had been granted or not.
“There isn’t even any need to host a Section 4 meeting anymore. People have the right to march. I dispute the claim that we never responded to the municipality. I was one of the officials who went there to calm the situation, until Dr Thabethe arrived to receive the memorandum.”
Mayisela suspects a murky agenda behind the protest, and told Exco, “Something is going on. I see that there is something which is going on. I just want you [Exco] to be aware that if there is something going on with these people, we must know what is going on.”
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