Total Shutdown movement takes to Cape Town’s streets again
According to the movement, the action was taken to protest against gender-based violence, crime and poverty.
The drug trade is the main source of income for gangs in Cape Town. EPA/NIC BOTHMA
Several roads in and around Cape Town were closed on Wednesday morning due to protest action which the #TotalShutdown movement organised – and Bishop Lavis and Hanover Park were affected the most.
According to the movement, the action was taken to protest against gender-based violence, crime and poverty.
Roads in Bishop Lavis and Hanover Park were reopened at 10:00.
“All we want is to live free from the fear instilled by the gangs, free from the bullets and the knives, free from abuse and rape. End the war on the Cape Flats”, Abdul Matthews, one of the organisers, wrote in a Facebook post.
The official poster for the protest suggested that it would start at 05:00 and end at 10:00.
At the crack of dawn on Wednesday, City of Cape Town traffic services spokesperson Richard Coleman said roads were closed in Hanover Park.
“People [are] blocking roadways,” Coleman said at the time.
At the same time, Coleman revealed that taxi operators had blocked Lavis Drive in Bishop Lavis.
There, Coleman said, “buses [were] denied entry and forced to turn around”.
Videos on social media showed that police in Bishop Lavis fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse crowds.
More to follow.
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