DOCUMENTS

Timeline of ANC & ANCYL's WCape ungovernability campaign

DA document outlines how threats have mutated into violence

TIMELINE: ANC AND ANCYL "Ungovernability" Campaign in the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape

Campaign/Issue

DATE

EVENT

HATE SPEECH

10 March 2010

Hate speech: ANC Youth League president Julius Malema leads students at the University of Johannesburg in a song including the words ‘Shoot the boer [farmer], they are rapists.

12 March 2010

Letter: From Helen Zille to President Jacob Zuma

Subject: A request for President Zuma and the leadership of the ANC to rebuke Julius Malema for singing a song that incites violence and amounts to  hate speech.  The letter also draws attention to other instances of threats and hate speech by ANCYL leaders in other provinces.

Response: No response received from President Zuma

 MAKHAZA

24 May 2010

Violence, vandalism and threats: The City of Cape Town erects 32 galvanised iron structures around the unenclosed toilets which are immediately vandalized, removed and stolen. ANCYL leaders, including Ward 95 Development Forum leader Andile Lili (who was employed by the contractor as community liaison officer during the implementation period of the Makhaza servicing project and had not disagreed with the agreement reached between the city and the community) and members are captured on television smashing the toilet enclosures. ANCYL members violently disrupt a meeting in Gugulethu and assault DA members and the SAPS and threaten to "declare war" against the "minority government" in the City of Cape Town.

25 May 2010

Incitement to violence: ANCYL Dullah Omar region executive member Loyiso Nkohla at a press conference vows to would make Cape Town ungovernable and warned that council property would be vandalised or destroyed because the city had failed to provide proper services to informal settlements.

He is quoted by the Cape Times as stating: "We are calling on all young people to do this, especially those living in informal settlements. We are going to destroy everything"

May 2010

Criminal charges laid: The City of Cape Town lays charges against ANCYL leaders for malicious damage to property.

08 May 2012: Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions informs the City of Cape Town that he has declined to prosecute.

The City has appealed this decision to the National Public of Prosecutions and is awaiting a response.

 MAKHAZA

26 May 2010

Letter: From Helen Zille to President Jacob Zuma

Subject: Draws President Zuma's attention to the violence and threats by the ANCYL  in the last few days and requests that he condemn these actions at the highest level and take firm action against the ANCYL members concerned. (Minister Mdladlana and Gwede Mantashe are cc'd).

Response: No response received from President Zuma

01 June 2010

Violent protest: 32 people arrested after a violent protest in Khayelitsha.  Eight of them were arrested for public violence while 24 were arrested under the Gathering Act, for staging an illegal march. The Khayelitsha residents were protesting against the City of Cape Town's decision to remove 65 toilets in the Makhaza settlement after enclosures around the toilets were vandalised by ANCYL members. Protestors burnt tyres and blocked roads with cement slabs.

June 2010

City lays charges:  against ANCYL members for illegally gathering in the Harare policing area and for inciting violence and malicious damage to property.

08 May 2012: Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions informs the City of Cape Town that he has declined to prosecute.

The City has appealed this decision to the National Public of Prosecutions and is awaiting a response.

 23 June 2010

Former Mayor of Cape Town Dan Plato and Premier Helen Zille visit the Makhaza community and speak to representatives of households whose toilets were removed. Representatives inform them that they want the City to return the toilets and to erect enclosures but they are too scared to speak out against the ANCYL.

24 June 2010

Threats by ANCYL: Co-operative Governance Minister Shiceka visits Makhaza and is accompanied by Premier Helen Zille and Mayor Dan Plato. The Premier and the Mayor walk out of a closed meeting after ANCYL member Andile Lili threatened to make the City ungovernable. Premier Zille and Mayor Plato state that they are not prepared to give the league legitimacy by staying on in the meeting after they had made these threats, against a legitimately elected provincial government, in the presence of a national Minister, without any rebuke.

LAND INVASIONS

11 August 2010

Letter: Helen Zille to President Zuma

Subject: Draw attention to land invasions in D'Almieda that are led by people with strong connections to the ANC. Calls on Zuma's urgent intervention in these matters in the form of a strong statement and direct interaction with the ANC councilors and office bearers in the Western Cape.

Response: No response received from President Zuma

18 May 2011

Tafelsig Land invasions: One day before the local elections ANC provincial chairman Marius Fransman led a group of backyard dwellers, who the police had just evicted from land earmarked for formal housing, back on to the invaded area in Tafelsig. This is despite the City of Cape Town obtaining a court interdict to prevent the backyarders from erecting structures on the land. Fransman arrived in an ANC van with the party's mayoral candidate Tony Ehrenreich's face depicted on one side and President Jacob Zuma's on the other.

PROJECT RECLAIM

6 February 2012

Threats to make DA councils ungovernable: Affidavits are filed by DA councillors and relatives at Caledon Police Station detailing bribery attempts by an ANC task team in Theewaterskloof municipality.

Three people corroborated evidence of encountering John Michaels, a local ANC leader, Fezile Calana, ANC provincial Treasurer and Advocate Duncan Korabie, an ANC affiliate from Wellington, at the home of former DA councillor Catharine Booysen-Nefdt on 3 February.

According to affidavits, Duncan Korabie made offers of administrative posts to a DA councillor in a new ANC-led municipality in exchange for defections. It is revealed that the ANC delegation planned to get sufficient signatures for a motion of no confidence in the Theewaterskloof council leadership.

John Michaels is quoted in one affidavit as saying that "we have a plan for every ward". Michaels forecasts that school-children will be used in Grabouw and informal settlement residents in the Villiersdorp area to make the municipality "ungovernable" and "to turn wards upside down". Michaels threatens DA councillor Meki Plato that this will come to pass if the no-confidence motion option is not successful.

5 March 2012

Protests: begin at the Umyezo Wama Apile Combined School in Grabouw, Theewaterskloof. John Michaels emerges as the leader of the protest in his capacity as chair of the Elgin Grabouw Civics Organization. Violence and vandalism is to follow in the area in the coming days.

12 March 2012

Protests: begin in Villiersdorp. Exits from informal and low-cost areas of the town are blocked and residents are prevented from going to work.

As the situation developed, one of the local ANC Councillors, Peter de Wet, became increasingly more prominent as the person leading the protest.

Tyres were burnt in the streets in front of the Municipal offices, stones were thrown through the windows and some other damage to the building and front garden was caused. An attempt was also made to set the Municipal Offices alight.

23 March 2012

Letter: Premier Helen Zille contacts Mr CM Mavata (Provincial Manager SSA Domestic Branch Western Cape)

Subject: A request for state security to give a briefing on the ANC's illegal and unconstitutional "Operation Reclaim" campaign.

Response: (28 March 2012) Mr Mavata declines the request and states the SSA is not in a position to deliver such a briefing as this matter is does not form part of its intelligence mandate.

30 March 2012

Letter: Premier Helen Zille to Minister of State Security Dr S Cwele

Subject: Request for an urgent meeting to discuss various reports of efforts to subvert democratically elected governments in the Western Cape.

Response: No response received from Minister Cwele

ANCYL "Ungovernability campaign"

27 July 2012

Protest march: ANCYL, the ANC, the ANCWL, the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association and Congress of Taxi Associations march to the Office of the Premier and handover a memorandum issued by the ANCYL (Dullah Omar region) on behalf of all organisations.

The memorandum contains the following threat: We demand that the abovementioned demands be positively responded to within 7 working days. Failure to do so the young people and the abovementioned stakeholders will make this city and province ungovernable! Amandla!"

30 July 2012

Violent protest: on corner of Landsdowne and Duinefontein road near Sweet homes farm in early hours of the morning.

Footage of the protest shows the actions of the protestors are carefully marshaled and controlled by certain identifiable individuals.

01 August 2012

Criminal Charges laid: Premier Helen Zille and Executive Mayor Patricia De Lille formally lay criminal complaints of intimidation against the ANCYL and the four other organisations who issued the memorandum containing a public threat to make the city and province ungovernable.

02 August 2012

Protest Action: 200 protestors congregate in Pama rd, Mew Way, Lwandle and Bonga rd in Khayelitsha demanding a City official to address them.

02 August 2012

ANC councillor arrested at illegal violent protest: The ANC's councillor for ward 90, Mr Luvuyo Hebe, was arrested for public violence together with other protesters after approximately 1000 residents in S-Section blocked roads in the area and pelted buses and municipal vehicles with stones on Thursday, 02 August. (Cape Times, 03 August 2012).

03 August 2012

Threats by ANCYL members: who are reported to have said "they will bring the province to its knees" by such tactics as:

·         Stopping all residents from going to work

·         Preventing any and all Golden Arrow buses and taxis from operating; and

·         Forcing all government cars off the road

(Daily Voice, 03 August 2012)

03 August 2012 

Threats on ETV: ANCYL  member, Loyiso Nkohla, repeats ANCYL threat of ungovernability on eNews channel news segment that is broadcast repeatedly from late afternoon until the morning of 04 August.

03 August 2012

Protest Action: protestors stone a Golden Arrow bus causing it to serve off the Mew Way bridge in Khayelitsha through a road barrier and crashing into and destroying six shacks. The driver was killed and five people were in a critical condition after the crash, including a child.

05 August 2012

Reward offered: The City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government announce that they are offering a joint reward of R50 000 to any person/s who disclose information that leads to the arrest and successful conviction of individuals behind the attack on the Golden Arrow bus.

07 August 2012

Threats on ETV: ANCYL Dullah Omar Region Chairperson, Khaya Yozi (also signatory on ANCYL memorandum of 27 July), repeats ANCYL threat of ungovernability on eNews Channel live interview at 17.15

 07 August 2012

Disruption of the Mayor's IDP public meeting: The Mayor had to call off a public meeting in Khayelitsha to report back to the community on how their input in the public participation process on the IDP has helped determine the city's delivery priorities after a group of youngsters in wearing ANCYL berets and t-shirts disrupted the meeting.

10 August 2012

Protest Action: About 500 people gather from 4am to protest, burn tyres, block roads, and throw stones at passing motorists. A Petrol bomb was also thrown at police officers. 62 people were arrested in the protest. Sections of the N2 highway were closed due to the protests.

11 August 2012

ANC and SANCO leaders resolve to block off the N2:   ANC and SANCO leaders in Sir Lowry's Pass Village resolved to block off the N2 during a public meeting while the DA's ward councillor Mr Johan Middleton and city officials were inspecting the site that 52 families from Rasta Camp were relocated to. This is after they were called to the site by the representatives of the 52 families following complaints that their structures were leaking due to excessive rains. The City provided the affected families with building material to prevent their structures from leaking.

12 August 2012

ANC and SANCO leaders prevent the Mayco member from addressing the community of Sir Lowry's Pass:  The Mayoral Committee member for Human Settlements, Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg was prevented from addressing the community by known ANC and SANCO activists in the area after he visited the site with city officials in an attempt to find out what the city can do to further assist the 52 families.

12 August 2012

Residents confirm that ANC leaders orchestrate protests: 10 residents and community leaders in Philippi, Nyanga and Khayelitsha confirm in an interview with a newspaper that ANC members and allied organisations, including the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), are behind recent violent protests. They reportedly mobilise community members to protest by SMS, pamphlets and loud-hailers at midnight (City Press, 12 August 2012).

12 August 2012

Municipal IQ states that the ANC is behind service delivery protests in the Western Cape.

Municipal IQ economist Karen Heese is quoted: the major cause of protests in Western Cape was political tension between the ANC and the province's ruling party, the Democratic Alliance.

 (City Press, 12 August 2012).

12 August 2012

Protest Action: protests began after 9pm on the N2 near Mew Way, Khayelitsha, where tyres were set alight on the road. An hour later, burning barricades were erected at the Lansdowne and Duinefontein roads intersection in Philippi. After the fire was extinguished and the authorities left, about 200 people scattered rubbish on the road. Protesters also gathered on Weltevreden and Vanguard Drive where they stoned a Metro Police vehicle

13 August 2012

Protest Action: between Mew Way and Spine Road in Khayelitsha. Protestors threw rocks at trucks, which resulted in the death of a truck driver and an attack on another driver who managed to escape. Live rounds were fired by a protestors at the SAPS and a train travelling from Khayelitsha en route to the city was also stoned and tyres set alight on the tracks, forcing the train to stop.

13 August 2012

Senior ANC source states ANC is at centre of protests: A Cape Argus article quotes a senior ANC official, who spoke on condition of anonymity: "Listen, of course ANC people in the communities are at the centre of demonstrating - they are councillors, community activists, etc, who will organise at a local level, using SMSes, sure."

(Cape Argus, 13 August 2012)

 14 August 2012

ANCYL concedes involvement in service delivery protests: The secretary of ANCYL's Dullar Omar region, Mfuzo Zenzile tells The Times that disgruntled league members might be involved in the violent service delivery protests that have erupted in the city. (The Times, 14 August 2012).

14 August 2012

National Parliament: DA MP Debbie Schafer delivers a member's statement in the National Assembly  asking the ANC to give a clear answer as to whether they support the Youth League's statements or not, and if not, what they plan to do about it.

No repudiation of the Youth League's threats to make the Western Cape ungovernable was forthcoming by any ANC member.

Issued by the DA, August 14 2012

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