By DANIEL BLOCH, Executive Director, Cape SAJBD
For the past 16 months, anti-Israel organisations – led by the BDS Movement, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and others – have organised repeated protests, motorcades and demonstrations in and around Sea Point. These events frequently disrupt traffic, violate local by-laws, and have led to instances of harassment and verbal abuse directed at pedestrians and motorists.
This forms the background to the letter which the Cape SAJBD recently sent to the Mayor of Cape Town, the Premier of the Western Cape, and the Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Services (SAPS). We wrote to formally request that the City of Cape Town and SAPS take appropriate enforcement action to uphold the law and protect the rights of all residents and visitors.
While we recognise and respect the constitutional right to protest, these demonstrations have increasingly crossed legal boundaries. In particular, the motorcades have repeatedly blocked roads and created obstructions to traffic, causing excessive noise disturbances through loud hooting and smoke machines. Those involved have also verbally abused and intimidated pedestrians and motorists, and this has led, in some instances, to physical altercations. In the recent motorcade on Sunday, 9 February, an innocent bystander was physically attacked by an aggressive group of protestors – but he is too afraid to press charges. During this same motorcade, some vehicles illegally stopped outside La Perla and left their vehicles to verbally assault patrons of the restaurant – a video of this has been circulating online.
These activities violate multiple sections of the Streets, Public Places, and Noise Nuisances By-law (2007), including: Section 2: Prohibiting obstruction of roads and public spaces, and Section 3: Prohibiting excessive noise and disturbances. Residents of Sea Point who wish to complain would do well to be aware of these laws as they will strengthen your argument if you complain to the civic authorities.
Based on the past physical confrontations, we have requested that these protests/motorcades be stopped entirely. However, should neither the City nor SAPS be able or willing to prevent these initiatives, we have requested that these measures be taken to restrict the aggressors and make it extremely challenging for them to proceed with their intimidatory and antagonistic protests:
• Stricter enforcement of traffic laws by deploying more police during these events
• Possibly a roadblock when entering Sea Point. This will allow traffic police to ensure that each vehicle is abiding by the traffic laws and deter them from doing anything illegal during a motorcade. Tow trucks should be on standby to remove vehicles obstructing traffic.
• Investigation and prosecution – taking legal action against individuals and organisers who violate by-laws, engage in hate speech, or physically assault others. And the Board would be willing to open cases on behalf of members of the community.
On Sunday, 12 November 2023, police had to use water cannons and smoke grenades to disperse violent protesters in Sea Point. Several individuals were found in possession of firearms, yet no-one was prosecuted. Without decisive action, this situation and future motorcades/protests may escalate further, risking serious injury or worse.
We urge the City and SAPS to take immediate steps to enforce existing laws and ensure that all demonstrations in Sea Point remain lawful and non-violent. The Cape SAJBD is engaging with the leadership and security officials at the highest levels; however, the voices of fellow Capetonians can be extremely powerful and re-enforce our message, and we encourage you to write to the City of Cape Town and, in particular, to the Mayor – mayor.mayor@capetown.gov.za . The more people who raise their voices, the more who complain; and the more noise we make, the more pressure it will place on Western Cape leadership to act.
The reality is that these protests and motorcades will continue to take place either legally or illegally. We fully understand the frustration, anger, and desire to respond to these violations of our space. However, their protestors’ goal is to provoke, intimidate, and lure our community into confrontation, and they have already demonstrated a readiness for physical altercations. Which is why we strongly urge our community members to refrain from direct engagement.
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The Cape SAJBD will continue to fight for our civil rights and to protect our way of life.
Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies website: www.capesajbd.org, Instagram, and Facebook page.
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