Cathcart anger over hospital
19 people injured as police, residents fight pitched battles
CATHCART was in an uproar yesterday as police fought pitched battles with residents opposed to a government plan to close the town’s hospital and turn it into clinic.
Nineteen residents were treated for broken limbs and rubber bullet wounds at the hospital.
A petrol bomb thrown through a window of the historic Cathcart town hall burnt a table before fire fighters extinguished the flames.
Most of the action took place on the N6 national road which links the coast to Johannesburg.
Residents closed the N6 at 5am and violence broke out soon after 6.30am when police moved in to clear the blockade and about 1 000 residents, some of whom had arrived at 3am, retaliated by throwing stones.
Afterwards, protesting residents accused the police of brutally attacking a peaceful demonstration.
They claimed police indiscriminately shot at residents, including bystanders.
At noon, Sandi Thini, 47 – who after a double break of his right leg above and below his knee had a plaster cast from his ankle to his hip – told Dispatch in the hospital:
“I was standing on the side of the road in front of the garage when the police started shooting at the protesters.
“As I was running away I fell into a drain hole and one police officer came charging at me shouting at me to move.
“I tried to explain that I am stuck but he just pulled me, then he dragged me. That’s when my leg broke,” said Thini.
Car guard Ayanda Mjadu, also interviewed at the hospital, said a public order police officer came up and shot him in the leg at a range of half a metre, breaking his limb.
“These people don’t even know who they are meant to shoot at. I was not even part of the protest. They have no distinction of what is a peaceful protest and violent one,” said Mjadu.
Cathcart police spokeswoman Lieutenant Namhla Mdleleni could not confirm allegations of police brutality, saying she had received no report of this nature.
“I can, however, confirm that the police did fire rubber bullets as police officers were trying to open the N6. I can also confirm that two people have been arrested for public violence.”
Two police vehicles were stoned and badly dented and railway power lines were cut preventing trains from travelling between Queenstown and East London for the whole day.
No sign of repair crews were seen by the time the Dispatch left at 4.30pm.
Amahlathi municipal manager Balisa Socikwa said the protest came “as a surprise”, especially when it turned violent.
“We appreciate people voicing frustrations but they need to be mindful of how they demonstrate so as to remain safe,” said Socikwa. —