Cape Town toilet protesters stopped in their tracks

Police yesterday prevented more than 150 toilet protesters from reaching Cape Town's city centre but failed to stop a faeces attack on a provincial government building.

Expelled ANC councillor Andile Lili travelled by train with residents from the informal settlements of Europe, Nyanga, Kosovo and Nkanini to protest against the city's sanitation policies.

The train was stopped at Esplanade s tation and the protesters were ordered out.

Awaiting them at the station was the police's crowd-control unit , armed with shields and rubber batons , and a few Cape Town metro police.

Police, with provincial health officials on hand, removed four bags filled with faeces from the train.

Lili was the first to be arrested and was bundled into a police truck. It took the police about 90 minutes to arrest the entire group .

Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said those arrested, including Lili, were being held at the Cape Town police station and that a decision on whether to charge them was being awaited.

As the police were dealing with the first batch of protesters, another ANC Cape Town councillor, Loyiso Nkohla, was marching towards a provincial government building on Greenmarket Square carrying two containers from portable flush toilets.

Nkohla and an accomplice entered the Protea Assurance Building, opened the two containers and spilled the contents in the reception area.

Leaving the building, which houses the offices for the provincial departments of sports and recreation and of agriculture, Nkohla said: "This is how we live in Cape Town."

He left quickly before security personnel or the police could arrive.

Workers at the building used a side entrance to leave.

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille's spokesman, Zak Mbhele, said the city council had obtained an interdict that prohibited anyone from removing containers from portable flush toilets.

Mbhele said that the provincial legislature had complained to the police about littering and trespassing by Lili and Nkohla after similar incidents last week.