Members of the police anti-gang unit were deployed to Clifton beach after a dramatic week that revived memories of apartheid-style beach bans.
One of the unit’s commanders confiscated a firearm in the beach car park from the security company at the centre of the furore about access to the beach.
Last Sunday, private security guards sparked outrage after they illegally ordered beach-goers off Clifton’s Fourth Beach, where bungalows cost about R50m.
On Friday evening the sand was stained with the blood of a sheep whose throat was cut by protesters in a “cleansing” ceremony to exorcise the “demon of racism”.
The slaughter was the culmination of a week of growing outrage following last Sunday’s operation at Clifton by guards employed by Professional Protection Alternatives (PPA), who told beach-goers to leave at 8pm.
Police refused to explain why the anti-gang unit — launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa in November to tackle crime in the Cape Flats — was in Clifton during Friday’s beach demonstration.
Read the full story in the Sunday Times.
