A brief word on public protests in Kouga

The residents of Ocean View are holding a march to the municipal offices tomorrow. This march is protected in terms of the Regulation of Gatherings Act and has been organized in accordance with the law. The main grievances of the residents of Ocean View relate to an absolute failure of the municipality to deliver basic services to this area. The residents of Jeffrey’s Bay have been invited to stand in solidarity with the residents of Ocean View tomorrow. Their march will begin at 8:00 (am) starting at the Tokyo Sexwale stadium. I believe that we should support this initiative both from the perspective of the right of a community to protest and from the perspective that it is generally the poor who suffer the most from municipal non-delivery and malfeance. I will therefore be attending this march and extend the invitation to members of the JBRA and residents of Jbay who are not yet members of the JBRA.

 

Turning to an update on the march that took place on the 12th September. I was personally amazed at the wonderful turnout of the march and believe that it was one of the most successful instances of a community engaging forcefully with government in South Africa. I am proud and believe that every resident of Jeffrey’s Bay should be proud of what we demonstrated can be accomplished by a community. It is unfortunate (but understandable) that my application to the High Court was not heard by 11:00 in order to ensure that the wrongful exclusion of people from public space could be set aside, however it remains before the court. I will be in the Grahamstown High Court on Thursday 27th September for a hearing on the original application (for those fluent in legalese I have had the matter removed and reinstated on the roll for the 27th September) with the objective of securing a setting aside of the purported prohibition against entering the courtyard (and again for those unfortunate enough to be fluent in legalese relief is sought on the prohibition in terms of the RGA s6(5) which is final relief and against the policies by way of a rule nisi which will see the matter back at court on a return day). If I secure the sought Order it will be entirely impractical for the Kouga municipality to attempt to keep the people of Kouga from demonstrating in the courtyard when they follow the legislated procedures and maintain a peaceful demonstration.

A march and demonstration is therefore being planned for the 3rd of October 2012 where we intend to enter the courtyard in an orderly fashion. This date is after the expiry of 14 days by any system of reckoning which the mayor may fall back on. I believe that the issue of the municipality seeking to monopolize the courtyard space and to lock out residents is of sufficient importance both in principle and in the effect of winning the principle that it is worth pursuing as aggressively as the law permits. Fortunately because the matter arises out of a fairly specific statutory framework I am able to litigate on the matter without incurring a great deal of costs, the same is not true about many of the other issues where litigation against the municipality may be warranted. Despite (or perhaps because of) my limited knowledge of law and litigation I am generally of the view that the litigation is generally not a course available to the JBRA and carries the disadvantage of frequently causing the municipality to use our money to fight us.

 

The mayor has made several scandalous and defamatory remarks, particularly during the attempted stage management of the media inside the courtyard from which Kouga unlawfully kept its residents: For one thing he described us as effluent people – and while this may have been a simple pronunciation error I think it should be treated as Freudian slip, after all one of our principle complaints is Kouga’s unlawful charging of poor residents for using the “bucket system”. Additionally the mayor attempted to portray Kouga’s problems as a product of ratespayers not paying their rates rather than a product of systemic mismanagement and presented the figure of R120 mil as outstanding. The truth of the matter is that Kouga is in such a perilous state of financial management and has adopted such a flawed and irregular budget that the Provincial authorities have no option but the intervene as demanded by the Constitution. At this juncture I am not ready to deliver a press statement in response to the mayor’s remarks and believe that one should only be prepared after hearing his further remarks after tomorrow's protest (I doubt he will be sufficiently brazen to use the term effluent tomorrow).

 

In addition to the  mayor we have been criticized by the ANC Youth League who have rather predictably lodged the accusation that the protest action was orchestrated by the Democratic Alliance. The accusation is so patently and manifestly dishonest and opportunistic that I fear responding comprehensively is to give the accusations more regard than they deserve. Put differently I believe it is best to disregard their accusations with the contempt they deserve.

 

Ultimately I would like to thank everybody who participated in the gathering whether in person or in thought (understandably many people were unable to attend). I’d particularly like to thank the SAPS and Kouga Traffic Service for commendable policing as well as the marshals for assisting in keeping order, I believe that as a nation we sometimes need to remind ourselves of our capacity to express ourselves freely and peacefully. I’d also like to thank the SFBRA for taking the initiative in calling and largely organizing the gathering. On Thursday there is a Council Meeting and perhaps a sense of the anxiety will be observable at the meeting. We can only hope that the Council recognizes the elephant in the room and sends the worst excesses of the previous and current administration to the man out of the mayoral committee.