City will not apologise to ‘poo protestors' Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla
The City of Cape Town will never apologise to Ses'Khona leaders, Andile Lile and Loyiso Nkhohla. They seem to have forgotten that they still face several criminal cases related to their conduct.
Andile Lile and Loyiso Nkohla owe thousands of people in the city an apology and restitution for the approximately R23 million in damages they caused as well as the resultant destruction of essential services to poor communities and the damage to our economy.
Their actions meant that valuable policing and emergency services resources had to be diverted away from communities desperately in need of their assistance - including incurring millions of rands worth of overtime - in order to deal with illegal actions by Lili and Nkohla. This is funding which could have been used for additional policing operations in gang-ravaged areas.
Ses'Khona is not a civil rights movement. They are a destructive force in the city and, through their actions, they have shown that they are a public health risk. Their protests have seen millions of rands worth of damages to private and public property, including damages to roads from last year's protests.
Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkhola still face numerous charges relating to their faeces attacks last year at the Cape Town International Airport, the Provincial Legislature, the Protea Assurance Building in Greenmarket Square and the N2 highway.
By their own admission, the organisation that they led was also responsible for the public violence in Kosovo, Philippi a few weeks ago, where Ses'Khona members destroyed sanitation facilities. This shocking level of vandalism also led to the electricity substation being destroyed, leaving 5 200 households without power.
The City is also pursuing civil action against the Informal Settlement Association which later became Ses'Khona. This action will be taken against Andile Lili, Loyiso Nkhohla and the rest of the ringleaders who instigated the violence we saw across the city last year.
Ultimately, the ringleaders of these so-called ‘poo protests' are responsible for a direct cost of around R12 million in damages and R24 million in indirect costs for the proactive policing that had to be activated to prevent further violent and destructive protests.
While we respect the independence of the judiciary, the ruling on Wednesday was extremely problematic and certainly regrettable.
Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla are by no means off the hook and their celebrations are premature.
Statement issued by Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, City of Cape Town, July 17 2014
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
