Cape Town Mayhem

F

fergus

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2004
Messages
1,514
Reaction score
5
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Striking security guards are on the rampage smashing cars overunning and looting stores. All the shops in Golden Acre are locked up. Now apparently they're blocking access to the train station.

Elsewhere in Cape Town there's been 3 taxi-related shootings today with a few killed and others wounded.

With all this going on where is the police, why wasn't the strike controlled.

What the heck is going on???
 
a lot happened outside my window - were plenty of cops but abuot 5000 strikers..in general have some sympathy for labour but this is just BS
 
dominic said:
a lot happened outside my window - were plenty of cops but abuot 5000 strikers..in general have some sympathy for labour but this is just BS
Click to expand...
I've actually seen absolutely nothing even though I'm quite near the action. I've heard from a lot of people and my sister narrowly missed having her car smashed in Adderly street. Aren't security guards supposed to protect people?
 
Last edited:
The thing is that after these idiots have finished trashing people's property they'll expect to be welcomed back with open arms by the very people whose property they destroyed.

Me thinks that they're going to be told to take a hike by the customers whose premises they(used to) guard.

I wonder what the unions will do then....?
 
Anyone got a list of the security guard company’s who’s workers are on strike, so that the businesses, can boycott them.
 
from iafrica.com:
...Marchers, many armed with steel pipes, sticks and pick-axe handles, ripped windscreen wipers and mirrors off cars parked in Plein Street outside Parliament, and smashed windows of cars and shops, grabbing merchandise...

...Groups of marchers laughed, danced and clapped hands as shaken car owners fetched their mangled vehicles from among the crowd and drove off.

Police captain Randall Stoffels said initial, unconfirmed reports were that about 100 vehicles were damaged by the strikers...
Click to expand...
this is insane... how can these people possibly be allowed (or expect) to return to their jobs? :eek: :mad:
 
Hmmm...

If I had any of these people in my employ I would tell them not to bother coming back to work. Alas I fear we have our present government to blame for this culture of 'if you can't get something the first time you voice an opinon about it, you go out and trash everything you find'
 
It was terrible.. from what I say on the front page of the argus, there was a poor (white ) lady who had been pushed over after being robbed of her cell phone by security gaurds.

What a load of sh*t.. seriously, police should have opened fire more carelessly. These are the peopel who are supposed to help protect shoppers and people in business, yet they are criminals themselves?
 
The problem is the security companies are completely powerless, so boycotting a security company is completely pointless. These thugs causing all this mayhem are perfect examples of how destructive unions can be. This is very reminiscent of the big coal miners strikes across the UK a couple of decades ago - some union leaders were actually convicted for instigating violence in some of those incidents...
 
Well at least there was one good old Cape gangster who faught back and stabbed one of the strikers after they tried to trash his stall.

I love the CPT mes steek culture... not even a strike can stop us from stabbing some people.
 
I agree, the cops should have done alot more shooting, and alot more, kicking the living **** out of people.

Why should these ppl get more money. Its not like its hard to be a guard. There must be more ppl out there that are willing to take there jobs.

South Africa must ban Unions they dont help our country one bit.
 
... and the government - who are supposed to be in charge of law & order - say nothing. They must like people trashing cars.
 
Welcome to the real world - this type of thing happens everywhere with demos like this - heck, just look what's happening in South America right now.

Look at the Brixton riots in the UK, or the LA riots in the USA - it's people power at it's most ugly - SA is not unusual in this aspect.

The underlying issue remains the same, these actions are simply "mob rule" and it matters not the country, creed, race or reason - anger boils over, opportunists take over the march, violence ensues.

Fact of life.
 
kilo39 said:
... and the government - who are supposed to be in charge of law & order - say nothing. They must like people trashing cars.
Click to expand...
Uhm... Just how do you suppose the government is supposed to stop something like this?

There were 5000 strikers, they would have had to call in the army... Unions are a power on to their own. Just be glad (if you're a capitalist) that you haven't seen a French general strike. As far as I'm concerned they're just about the worst (The Brits aren't too bad at it either).
 
Exactly.

This isn't anything usual, sadly, it's people being very P1Ssed off at their general working/living conditions who have reached breaking point.

These things more often than not lead to indescriminate violence and vandalism, either out of over enthuisasm and anger, or because of bad elements in the crowd - people with another agenda.

Don't blame the security guards in general, blame the guys who hire them, paying them peanuts to be the only real line of defence between the middle/upper income groups and the criminals.

Then blame the government for failing to address the issues of crime.

The security guards are simply at thier wits end - with inflation at such a high rate, thier salaries just don't make ends meet and nobody seems to give a damn, so the only option is to strike.

The anger boils over when nothing is solved and what you get is what your seeing now - it's a worldwide issue, SA is NOT alone in this.
 
Uhm... Just how do you suppose the government is supposed to stop something like this?
Click to expand...
I want Thabo Mbeki - the government in general - to stand up and say something about public violence and how unacceptable it is. I want some direction from the top - instead of No Direction or Negative Direction. Amazes me - USA, Europe - basically any country in the world excluding Africa - government stands up, or a regulatory body stands up - says We Conclude - then sh#t happens... 12 years later we're still waiting.

And I agree Guards wages pitiful - especially as they put their lives on the line - but fact is - market forces (oversupply of guards, and yet more profiteering) set wages... Once again - this government - who could create thousands of jobs (through contracts, new works, etc) sit and twiddle their thumbs (eat donuts.)

Fact - get to the point - they should just step down - they are incapable.
 
Don't know how many of you have read this but:

COSATU has called for a general strike on Thursday. Now that should be interesting. I think there are a lot more angry people than the government (or the rest of us) think. Wonder if they'll continue considering the SATAWU strike and what happened?

[edit]
Oops, just saw neio's thread, silly me.
 
Strike action and violence in South Africa has not reached the levels seen in strike action over the years throughout the world. But it is going to get worse. Some serious rethinking needs to be done by the government, especially regarding violence and crime. Eradication of poverty only received lip service from the government - and there is no hard line action to address this major and growing problem. Minimum wages are a joke, and many aspects of wage earnings needs to be addressed - including compulsory and reasonable danger pay, guaranteed incentive bonusses for good, hard work, etc.

A thought: if the government reduces the costs of Telecoms overall and Telkom's propensity to rape the consumer in general, then more jobs will be created. It's a simple equation, and easily implemented.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X