Heavily-armed police used sjamboks and their new water cannon – immediately dubbed “purple rain” because of the dye in the water to disperse crowds in Adderley Street, Cape Town, yesterday afternoon.
This was the third time in a week that unrest had spilled out of the townships and into white areas. Rioting allegedly started yesterday in Schotche Kloof, the Malay section adjacent to central Cape Town.
According to an eyewitness, about 50 women wearing “Troops out of the Townships” T-shirts arrived in Adderley Street.
Sapa reports that the women arrived in a bus from Peninsula townships to protest against the presence of Security Forces in the townships. The bus was stopped and redirected to the fringe of the city centre, but witnesses said about 20 women wearing “troops out” T-shirts congregated in the street ululating.
A police helicopter hovered overhead as policemen asked inquisitive people to go back to their offices. Armoured vehicles moved into the city as lunchtime crowds started to gather. Policemen, wearing riot helmets and armed with teargas canisters, shotguns and rubber bullet weapons, dismounted from vehicles and took up positions at intersections.
Minutes later the helicopter swooped over Adderley Street, broadcasting a message over loudspeakers for people to go about their normal business. Much of the request to disperse was lost in the noise of the helicopter’s engine.
A policeman repeatedly asked the crowd to disperse. “You are going to give me laryngitis, my throat won’t take it, please people, disperse, otherwise we will have to take action.” But even more people gathered and the water cannon, spouting a purple dye, was used.
The policeman on the loudhailer said: “You will notice the lady with the lovely blonde now sports a mane of purple. Please people disperse”.
A group of youths were stopped from attending the trial of three men charged with the murder of a policeman. They ran into the Golden Acre shopping centre and police sealed off all entrances. A crowd then moved up Hout Street, where youths overturned two delivery vehicles and pelted another with tomatoes.
An hour later, it was reported that the sjambok-wielding police raced through the city centre, whipping pedestrians.
By about 3.30pm, a policeman in a Casspir, with a rifle slung over his back, announced over a loudhailer in Afrikaans, “You can have a cup of tea now and carry on shopping”.—-Moira Levy and Sapa