Cape Town - The City saw sporadic incidents of violence in the city, with little to no disruptions to daily operations as the EFF embarked on a national shutdown calling for, among others, an end to load shedding and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign.
This is despite the reported threats of violence and intimidation which the provincial government said the EFF members made before the protest.
City safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith said law enforcement agencies responded to a few sporadic incidents of stone-throwing, attempts to block roads and attempted arson. He said these were contained with the swift response of enforcement agencies.
One arrest was made after a group tried to intimidate fuel stations in Parklands. The City also reported two attempts to petrol bomb MyCiTi buses. Sporadic stone-throwing incidents were reported on Maroela and Voortrekker Road, Kraaifontein, and at Klipfontein and Borcherds Quarry Roads.
There were also attempts of burning debris on the road reported in Khayelitsha, Delft, and Dunoon.
Premier Alan Winde commended the law enforcement agencies, disaster management staff, and emergency responders for working to ensure that the protests did not descend into anarchy.
Winde said the province was well prepared, adding that he would engage police commissioner Thembisile Patekile on how they can take insights from the protest and apply them in the fight against crime.
“If we are able to successfully co-ordinate our safety and emergency response resources to respond to significant threats and risks like we did today (Monday), we must and should repeat this generally in our fight against crime,” he said.
Last week, the high court granted the City and the provincial government an interdict to prevent the EFF and its members from inciting violence and intimidation, and damaging property.
EFF provincial spokesperson Wandile Kasibe said it was a fruitless and wasteful expenditure, spending money by taking them to court “for no apparent reason(s)”.
Kasibe said the party never invited people to violence and neither did it say there would be looting of shops.
“The racist DA government went around and fed lies to the residents of the Western Cape, telling them that there would be violence and looting of shops, something that is not part of our political DNA as the EFF.
“Those DA fascists and who proclaimed violence are left with eggs on their faces and must be having racist chest pains right now. The extent of their violence has blinded them from fathoming a simple fact, that EFF is a peaceful organisation that defends the interest of the poorest of the poor and the working class,” he said.
Kasibe said Mayor Hill-Lewis and Premier Winde must tell the residents in the province who would be paying for the court application.