Question on what was motivation for protest

Was the protest action that blocked the N2 and trapped residents of Dana Bay in their suburb early on Monday morning, 1 October, the work of politicians making good on a promise, or the work of criminals?

There seem to be conflicting answers to this question.

The DA constituency head for Mossel Bay, Jaco Londt, on behalf of the DA Western Cape issued a press release on Monday, 1 October to "condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the illegal protest action and subsequent arson attack on a delivery vehicle on the N2 just outside of Mossel Bay."

"All South Africans have the right to protest peacefully but damage to property and putting people’s lives in danger is unacceptable," Londt said.

The statement said: "During the protest, a large truck was set alight and the content of the truck looted. Luckily, the driver of the truck escaped unharmed. It is frightening that protesters would risk the life of a fellow citizen in their attempt to destabalise the municipality."

Threat from ANC

Londt said: "This criminal behaviour also came at a time when the Mossel Bay Municipal Council received various threats from the ANC in Mossel Bay, stating that if an alternative route was to be built into Dana Bay, they would make the municipality ungovernable."

Londt said the Speaker, Alderman Petru Terblanche, warned ANC councillors and specifically the ANC chief whip, Councillor Jovan Bruinders during the council meeting on Thursday last week, "that he sees their threats made in council in a serious light. Politics should not endanger lives of citizens, especially not for short term unsustainable cheap political points".

Furthermore, Londt said: "I call on the South African Police Service to investigate the matter and find those responsible. We cannot allow a few to disrupt a whole community in the interest of a few."

Precautionary steps

The Mossel Bay Advertiser asked Londt whether the mayor, Speaker, councillors or municipal executive management took any precautionary steps to protect residents against the threat that was evidently made during the monthly council meeting on Thursday, 27 September.

At the meeting Councillor Bruinders said: "The ANC will engage in mass action against this municipality, as of Monday, however, within the limitations of the law."

Councillor Bruinders called on "all progressive organisations in town to stand up against the proposed additional access road to Dana Bay". He added that the DA, in his opinion was not capable of running the town. Londt said he based his statement on the orchestrated efforts made across the province to make DA municipalities ungovernable. It transpired that none of the law enforcement agencies, nor the neighbourhood watches were alerted ahead of time of a possible or imminent threat.

Londt added that it would be preposterous to expect that the Public Order Policing Unit, with its limited personnel be placed on standby without concrete intelligence to prove a definite threat.

Diametrically different

The press statement by Londt was diametrically opposed to a statement made to certain media earlier on Monday morning by the executive mayor, Alderman Harry Levendal, who described the protests as the acts of a few criminals. This statement was underscored by an official press statement by the Mossel Bay Municipality.

Unlike previous incidents of upheaval, as far as could be established, no letters of demand were issued to the municipality at the time of going to press. Some residents speculate that the riots resulted from disgruntled job seekers that had no municipal service delivery issues as complaints.