Hangberg man to sue police

Junior attorneys from Batchelor & Associates have met Santonio Jonkers, who was beaten in front of his family and dragged away from his home in the early hours of September 30. Paul Halliday, an associate attorney at the firm, plans to represent Jonkers in a civil claim for damages against the Minister of Police.

“It needs to be established whether the arrest and detention was wrongful or carried out in a wrongful manner,” he said.

“The claim would be against the Minister in his capacity as the employer of the officers involved.”

Jonkers has also opened an assault case against the officers from the elite NIU who kicked down his door before beating, strangling and pepper spraying him. Hout Bay police have confirmed that this investigation has been passed on to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).

Jonkers’ arrest spurred the community into a rampage reminiscent of the 2010 “uprising” in Hangberg. Hout Bay station commissioner, Lieutenant Colonel Bongani Mtakati, said on Friday that his officers had had to work hard in recent days to regain the trust of the community.

“We have had to go to community leaders and sometimes to individual community members to explain that our officers did not, nor would ever have participated in a raid of this nature,” he said, with reference to the manner in which Jonkers was dragged from his shack – apparently for being in contravention of a court order interdicting further settlement on the Sentinel above Hangberg – last week.

“I have met with the top brass (of police in the province) to get clarity on what happened. I was perturbed that neither I nor any of my members were informed of the fact that such police action would take place in my station’s jurisdiction. I made that clear, and I do not foresee that it will happen again.”

The raid, and the community’s response showed up a general mistrust of the Peace and Mediation Forum. Last week, rioters attacked the Panorama block of flats to target PMF deputy-chairman Gregg Louw – who lives there with his family.

The forum, constituted of 39 community representatives, was elected in the wake of the 2010 protests. In 2011, the PMF struck a Peace Accord with the City of Cape Town and other governmental stakeholders. An agreement within this accord, which later became an order of the Western Cape High Court, was that the unlawful occupiers of the Sentinel would eventually move off the land voluntarily.

The PMF were invited to a community meeting last night, organised by the proportional representative for Subcouncil 16 (within which Hangberg falls) Bheki Hadebe.

“The community wanted an explanation from the PMF on the Peace Accord and wanted to give the PMF a mandate to take to government,” said Hadebe.

“Their refusal to show up because of security concerns, in spite of promises that they would not be harmed, shows that they are not responsive to the community.”

He said the community saw the PMF as illegitimate because its members “ fear the very same people that they purport to represent.”

Louw acknowledged that he had refused to attend the meeting without sufficient security to guarantee his safety.

“Emotions are running high and accusations are being levelled against us in an irresponsible manner. It is not a constructive environment to negotiate and meet within.”

Marga Haywood, Ward 74’s councillor within which Hangberg falls, said that she was had not been informed or invited to the meeting.

She said it was “not acceptable” for the community to call for an explanation of the peace accord struck in 2011.

“It has already been handed to all the relevant community structures. Occupying the Sentinel, in contravention of this (and an earlier) court order, is against the law. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse,” she said.