Police allegedly damaged the premises of the People’s Power Secondary School in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, in the course of intensified action against, and arrests of, members of the Anti-Eviction Campaign (AEC) over the weekend.
AEC member Max Ntanyana, who has been active in setting up the school, was among five people arrested on Sunday February 23 in Mandela Park. He appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of “intimidation” and “breaking bail conditions”, said Commissioner Mzwandile Petros, who heads the serious and violent crimes unit based at Bishop Lavis police station in Cape Town. The case has been postponed to April 10.
Petros told the Mail & Guardian the arrests and the police activity on Sunday “have nothing to do with the school”. But AEC members insist the police action not only continues months-long harassment and intimidation of its members, but is directly related to M&G coverage of the school in the last week of February.
“They were furious about the good publicity the school got,” an AEC member said.
Doors at the school were broken and the front gate is off its hinges after Sunday’s events, said AEC member Peter van Heusden.
Petros said he could “not confirm any damage. If people have that information, they must take it to the Independent Complaints Directorate.”
The M&G reported that AEC members were assisting Khayelitsha residents in setting up People’s Power to cater for students excluded from other schools on grounds related to fees, failure last year or age. Within a month, the school had signed up 1 800 students and had 18 qualified teachers, Ntanyana told the M&G.
During the day, the school uses the premises of the Andile Nhose Community Centre in Khayelitsha. An AEC meeting there on Sunday night was “monitored by undercover police officers” and Ntanyana was arrested, according to a statement released by Provincial Commissioner Lennit Max.
The AEC says Ntanyana was abducted outside his house after the meeting by three men who jumped out of a black car with no number plates. They grabbed him and dragged him into the car. Petros told the M&G the arresting officers were in plain clothes, but he was not sure about the lack of number plates.
“Police cars should have registration plates and arresting officers should identify themselves.”
While community members were still unsure who had picked up Ntanyana, they grabbed a woman who had earlier been noticed talking to one of the three men in the black car, the AEC says.
“The woman was released after the head of the Khayelitsha police, [Director Rasimati] Shivuri, came to Mandela Park [on Sunday] to negotiate with the community,” the AEC says.
Four residents were then arrested for abduction — the woman turned out to be a police constable — assault and pointing of a firearm. Their court appearance was postponed until Monday.
“The school is now getting the same bureaucratic runaround as the AEC,” Van Heusden says. “The community met this week on Wednesday night and decided to march on Parliament next week to demand that the crackdown on the AEC stop. Dealing with the housing crisis in Khayelitsha is a political matter — not a criminal one — and requires a political solution.”
The Western Cape Department of Education told the M&G it is still engaging “at a senior level with the group who want the informal People’s Power school registered … A further meeting with this group is tentatively scheduled for Sunday March 2.”
But members of the school’s governing body say its attempts to meet the department have met with “postponements, telephonic evasions and a paper trail”. As the M&G went to press on Thursday, 1 200 Khayelitsha residents had marched on the department’s offices.
They were demanding immediate registration of the school, provision of textbooks, stationery and temporary classrooms, and recognition of teaching staff.