Ring of steel as Hermanus 'protest leader' appears in court

The leader of a group alleged to be behind violent protests in the southern Cape appeared briefly in the Hermanus Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.

Gcbani Ndzongana‚ 37‚ was arrested last week after he and about 500 community members from the Zwelihle township in Hermanus tore down a fence they said was put in place to enforce segregation between the mostly black township and their more affluent white neighbours.

Ndzongana's legal representative was not present in court as he was delayed while travelling from Cape Town. His teen daughter who was in court‚ was visibly shaken when her father asked her to try to contact his lawyer.

A large contingent of public order police who drove through in a convoy from Cape Town stood outside the court. Access was tightly controlled. Gates were locked and security guards would only let the media in.

There were no supporters of Ndzongana however because the magistrate earlier denied a request for 20‚000 people from Zwelihle to gather outside court.

Instead police cordoned off every access road into the township‚ keeping the residents inside.

Police officers checked every person trying to cross makeshift police checkpoints and asked for identification documents and reasons for why people wanted to leave.

At one such checkpoint‚ where hundreds of spent shotgun shells and used stun grenades bristled in the sun‚ a mother taking her child to the clinic was permitted to pass as well as a man with papers from the municipality with an electricity bill that needed to be settled.

A young man with fresh‚ and also older‚ rubber bullet wounds dotting his legs was turned away by the police after he claimed to want to go to the store to buy food.

Asanda Mlonyeni spoke openly about his clashes with police since the protests started on July 7.

He confirmed claims that protesters were targeting community members who tried to go to work‚ saying that he supported the burning of people's homes and belongings who attempted to go to work.

He said the protest was about land and blamed the municipality for not making more land available to residents.

He said that protesters burnt down a police station and municipal office because they were upset about bad services rendered by the staff in those buildings.

Zwelihle Renewal Committee‚ Ndzongana's group which has been driving the protest action‚ is demanding his release and they say that only Police Minister Bheki Cele's presence will resolve the standoff.

The organisation's spokesperson‚ Theron Mqhu‚ referred to measures taken by police to control access to the town as "apartheid measures".

"This thing all started because of a fence that the municipality erected without consulting with the community‚" he said.

"The people in Zwelihle saw this as segregation. We don't know what the purpose of this fence was‚" said Mqhu.

"The municipality posted an article saying it was … to prevent children from going into the main road. There was no public participation‚" he said.

The case against Ndzongana was postponed.