One man was arrested as protesting members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) clashed with police in central Cape Town on Tuesday.
About 2 000 workers marched through the city to voice their opposition to privatisation of basic services such as water and electricity.
Outside the civic centre, where they were to hand over a memorandum, a section of the marchers confronted South African Police Service (SAPS) members who were carrying plastic riot shields, shoving and abusing them, and throwing sticks and posters, before marshals intervened.
Later on, there was another clash when city police arrested a demonstrator who allegedly hit a city police horse and caused its rider to fall off.
Police used batons to beat off members of the crowd who tried to rescue him as he was bundled into a van.
An SAPS captain on the scene told union officials demanding his release the man would be taken to Caledon Square police station and charged.
”He hit a horse and the lady fell from the horse,” the officer said.
Amid all the excitement, union officials handed over a memorandum to mayoral committee member Clifford Sitonga, protesting against what the memo said was the city’s decision to embark on a broad-based restructuring and privatisation programme.
The memo demanded that the city halt all privatisation initiatives until there is a clear policy to guide restructuring.
The policy should lay down that no restructuring can take place if it impacts negatively on the poor, and the city should not privatise where that will effectively end cross-subsidisation of services for the poor.
Earlier, the marchers halted briefly outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre where an African utilities conference is under way.
Samwu provincial secretary Andre Adams told the marchers the conference is about the extension of pre-paid meters into poor communities.
”They are talking about utility companies to deliver basic services, and as Samwu we say we cannot allow this conference to go on without it being challenged,” he said.
Pre-paid meters will mean the council no longer takes responsibility for delivery to the poor, he said.
”Your relationship is no longer with the council, it is with a meter box,” Adams said. ”We cannot agree that the poor must be punished for being poor.”
Water should be provided based on need, not the ability to pay. — Sapa