Update Video

MOSSEL BAY NEWS & VIDEO - Calls of Mlungu, meaning white man, allegedly rang out as a pickaxe handle hit Icosa leader Cornelius Jacobs on his back.

A large group of illegal squatters in the Dube Street area apparently circled Jacobs and two other community members and threatened, in bundu court style, to kill them should a ladder that was confiscated earlier on Monday not be returned to them.

Although the names of the other community leaders are known, they have been withheld for their own safety. Jacobs was clearly in pain when the Mossel Bay Advertiser spoke to him early on Tuesday morning after the assault. On Monday, 18 June the municipality, supported by members of the police, removed the many illegal electrical connections and extension leads that supply electricity to the growing informal settlement on the outskirts of Asla Park, just off Dube Street. 

At approximately 18:30 the same evening, police on patrol confiscated a ladder they noticed against a utility pole.

At first, a number of angry men from the informal settlement arrived at the home of a Dube Street resident and allegely threatened to destroy the home if the ladder was not returned. They were upset because the electricity was cut earlier during the day while they were at work. When the owner of the home allowed them access to his premises and they were satisfied that the ladder was not being kept there, the small crowd dispersed.

Attackers regrouped
However, according to residents of Dube Street these men then approached people from Elangeni before they regrouped in great numbers and arrived en masse to threaten the lives of the people of Dube Street particularly, demanding to know who called the police to remove the illegal electrical connections.

The mob then took the three men - Jacobs and the other two community leaders - hostage, encircled them and marched them away from Dube Street, all the while threatening to kill them, it is alleged.

Early on Wednesday morning, 20 June, just before a special council meeting, a group of Dube Street residents held a peaceful placard demonstration in front of the municipal building. Photo: Nickey le Roux

Jacobs, who is white, was assaulted and repeatedly hit with a pickaxe handle. He was accused of working with the municipality to remove the illegal connections. The other men were said to have been manhandled but not assaulted. 

Jacobs was told a white man had no business being there, and despite him telling them that he was assisting the community in their effort to acquire help from the police and municipality, he was repeatedly assaulted.

Also, Councillor Dawid Kamfer, the provincial leader of Icosa, was apparently threatened, with the angry informal area residents saying he had no reason to be there as the area is not his ward. Councillor Kamfer is not bound to a particular ward.

No help
Community leaders say they repeatedly tried to get help from various political leaders and the local police. No public order policing members were available to assist, and for quite some time nobody responded to their pleas despite the community relaying the dire nature of the situation and the fact that they feared for their own lives and that of Jacobs.

Councillor Kamfer said he managed to calm the mood somewhat before members of the KwaNonqaba police arrived on the scene. Community leaders said Jacobs, for his own safety, was placed in the back of one of the police vehicles while talks with the group from the informal settlement were taking place.

Eventually, in order to defuse the situation, the police apparently agreed to return the ladder that was confiscated. Then, in their presence the mob had people scale the utility poles to reconnect their illegal electricity.

Watch a video below:

War zone
In desperation, the community of Dube Street have now asked that the Mossel Bay Municipality remove the electricity supply to their neighbourhood until such time as electricity supply to the informal settlement can be formalised. 

"It will disrupt our lives not to have electricity, but having the luxury of electricity at the risk of someone's life is simply not worth it. Someone is bound to die here. On Monday night it was like a war zone in Dube Street.

"The people of the informal area called on others from Elangeni to help them to retrieve the ladder that was confiscated. When they arrived they trampled over the fences of our homes, they threatened our children and wives, they threatened our lives. We met the municipality and members of the police on Monday, 11 June. 

"We were assured that the police would increase their presence in our area. When we called for assistance when a man was being assaulted, there was no response - not from the police, not from the municipality, not from the politicians. We cannot go on like this," a community leader said on condition of anonymity. 

Meanwhile, it has been reliably learnt that people are getting ready to occupy other open pieces of land, most notably the new graveyard and an area called Sewende Laan. The municipality has since consulted with police management to ensure greater police visibility in the area.

Read a previous article: Kragdiewe vasgevat in Asla

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