ANC OUTRAGED BY 4th BEACH SHUTDOWN
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
We are outraged that a private security company can give itself the authority to ignore our Constitution and illegally order South Africans to leave Cape Town’s 4th Beach.
Among those that this security company wanted to kick off this beach that has been used by indigenous people for generations were our provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs, his wife and their children. They were part of a group of 20 friends that has been using 4th Beach for the past six years as a venue for their annual picnic.
They were out on Sunday night, not with a political agenda to provoke a confrontation as some within the City of Cape Town’s DA political leadership are claiming, but as part of a group that wanted to unwind.
Just before 8pm two security guards approached the party informing them that the beach was about to close and that they needed to go.
Pressed for their identity the two men reluctantly disclosed that they were not law enforcement officers, but were under instructions to clear the beach at 8pm every night from December 16.
The group of friends stood their ground, refusing to leave, and telling the illegal curfew-enforcers that their action was against the law. However, the beach was cleared. Some of those who left were clearly under the impression that those closing 4th Beach were South African Police Service officers with the authority to close a beach.
Jacobs said: “It’s disgraceful that a private security, which appears to have operated with the connivance of rightwing elements in the City of Cape Town administration and ratepayers, tried to humiliate them. We wonder if this would have been just another unreported incident if we were not there to experience it first hand. How many others have been ordered to get off beaches that under apartheid were reserved for the exclusive use of whites?”
He added: “I was out with my family and friends when the security company’s employees tried to run us off the beach. There was no political agenda in being on 4th Beach. Our only agenda was to relax and have fun.”
“Being told to leave 4th Beach,” he said, “is unacceptable in our democracy. We warn those who want to reintroduce apartheid, including the DA with its devious policies to entrench white privilege, that we will not allow it.
“We want to remind them that during the Defiance Campaign of 1989 we ended beach apartheid with the slogan All God’s People for All God’s children. We will not allow beach apartheid to return. Never again will our beaches be segregated. We call on all our people to exercise their freedom of movement and access to our beaches. This is their democratic right, which we will defend.”
Saying it was not satisfied with the answers given by mayoral safety and security member JP Smith, the ANC said it wants Mayor Dan Plato to speak up. “He cannot remain silent on this or allegations that the same security company is illegally acting against street vendors. Had he been on the beach as a private citizen without any bodyguards the same security company would have tried to compel him to leave,” Jacobs said.
Statement issued by Dennis Cruywagen for the ANC Western Cape, 26 December 2018
