City of Cape Town to lay charges against Clifton beach sheep killers
Protestors led by Chumani Maxwele (in red) slaughtered a sheep on Clifton beach over allegations that private security guards had ordered black beachgoers to leave. AFP/RODGER BOSCH
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Following condemnation from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the City of Cape Town confirmed on Sunday it would lay animal cruelty charges against a group who ritually slaughtered a sheep on Clifton Fourth Beach.
On Friday, protesters against alleged racism at the beach slaughtered a sheep in what they claimed was a traditional ceremony to ward off evil and drive out racism.
It is illegal to slaughter an animal in a public place without a permit and animal-rights activists were also on the beach to protest against the act, which they said amounted to animal cruelty.
The protest was organised and led by former Rhodes Must Mall and Fees Must Fall leader Chumani Maxwele.
Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the group did not have a permit to slaughter the sheep and the police had been asked to prevent them from bringing it to the beach.
The sheep was in effect sneaked on to the beach from an adjacent beach by being carried over the rocks, he said.
Smith claimed that a senior SA Police Service member then allegedly overreached his authority by allowing the ritual to continue after it became clear the sheep was not dead, as initially thought. He said charges would also be laid against the officer.
ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs was among those ordered off the beach by a private security company last Sunday and raised alarm about what happened to him and his family. The security company, Professional Protection Alternatives (PPA), reportedly also controlled entrances to Clifton beach, allegedly illegally approving access.
The Sunday Times reported today that questions have been raised about why members of the police’s new anti-gang unit were deployed to the beach on Friday. They said they saw a gang unit member confiscating a firearm from PPA.
The paper spoke to an unnamed Clifton resident, who revealed that the local neighbourhood Bungalow Owners’ Association had initiated a contract with PPA to guard their suburb in September. The resident told the paper they felt the company had done a good job to “clean up” the area and make them feel safer after a number of residents were reportedly “attacked in their homes by armed men”.
According to residents, criminals had also started ambushing them on their way down to the beach; so they decided to personally pay a security company to safeguard them.
PPA CEO Alwyn Landman told the Sunday Times: “It was basically lawlessness … clients explained to me that they would call the police and they would eventually get there after 40 minutes, sometimes not.”
The government regulator is investigating why a private security company started illegally interfering with people’s free movement in a public space.
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