Rehana Rossouw
THE campaign against gangsterism and drugs will intensify in the next few weeks and Cape Town’s Waterfront could see more protests, People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) said this week.
Last weekend, Achmat Najjaar, the brother of a prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Thafier Najjaar, was shot and killed during a clash with the police at the Waterfront.
The tourism industry has reported cancellations for the festive season in Cape Town, and Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi said the government would enforce the Regulations of Gatherings Act which governs the conduct of protestors and allows police to disperse them.
“We had a meeting with [Justice Minister] Dullah Omar and [Cape Attorney General] Frank Khan. Khan asked us to keep a low profile for a week or two, but we have decided we are stepping up the campaign,” said an unidentified Pagad leader whose face was covered in a scarf at a press conference this week. “We are going to intensify the campaign, whether it is at the Waterfront, Manenberg or Table Mountain.
“People keep asking why we went to the Waterfront to protest. Is it only open to people who come there with money to spend? We have a drug problem, we have the right to tell the world about our problem.”
Another Pagad leader, Aslam Toefy, said his supporters’ communities were like prisons where people were forced to live behind bars.
“We want tourists, we need them, we cannot do without their foreign currency. But why should they come and enjoy our seaside and mountains and have the run of the place when we cannot even have our children playing in the parks?” Toefy asked. A Pagad leader known only as “the Amir” said the media had linked their campaign with the word “jihad” which was given a negative connotation. “When people use it they usually translate it into holy war. Nowhere in Islamic text, in the Arabic language, is this word translated as holy war,” the Amir said. “Its meaning is to exert oneself to the utmost. Jihad is incumbent on Muslims at all times. When a student studies medicine, he has to exert himself to the utmost in his studies, that is a form of jihad. “When we take up a campaign against gangsterism and drugs, we are going to exert ourselves to the utmost. Jihad is not just a holy war by bloodthirsty people.”