Cape Town – A group of Cape Town activists are planning to protest and slaughter a sheep against the illegal removal of beachgoers at Clifton Beach.

Organizing under the banner of #ReclaimClifton, the group which calls itself the Black People’s National Crisis Committee held a press conference on Thursday at Clifton 4th Beach. It said that it has planned a protest at the beach on Friday evening against what they view as the reincarnation of the apartheid Separate Amenities Act that segregated access to beaches along racial lines.

Cape Town activist Chumani Maxwele said that they are planning on slaughtering a sheep to cleanse off what he calls racist spirits at the beach and to invoke the spirit of Xhosa warrior and prisoner of war Makhanda who drowned while attempting to escape Robben Island almost 200 years ago.

ANC Western Cape Secretary Faiez Jacobs has also called for a protest picnic for Saturday afternoon against what he calls the criminalization of the poor by the DA run City of Cape Town.

This follows the illegal removal of a group of people by a private security company Professional Protection Alternatives (PPA) that claimed that the patrons were not allowed at the beach beyond 20:00. The company is alleged to have claimed to be acting on the instructions of the City of Cape Town.

The City of Cape Town has since distanced itself from this claiming that the company has no mandate to regulate access to the beach.

Monique Harrisberg who is a resident at Clifton 4th Beach said the matter has been blown out of proportion as they were only trying to ensure their safety as resident .

“There has been a shocking amount of crime at night with gangs coming and playing out their fights with each other and we the residents are feeling very unsafe and we can’t event come home and enter our own homes so we’ve had to get private security to assist the police who are understaffed and they have been assisting us to feel a little bit safer in our homes”.

When asked about how she identifies people who are gangsters, Harrisberg said that it was based on how they dressed, the liquor they bring, how they speak and the loud noise they make while on the beach.

Top Western Cape detective Major General Jeremy Vearey took a walk about at the scene, listening to people’s perspectives on the matter. He refused to comment to the media.

source: DFA