- Title: SOUTH AFRICA: NYANGA SQUATTERS EVICTED BY POLICE AND THEIR CAMP BURNT.
- Date: 20th August 1981
- Summary: GV Nyanga squatters' camp (2 shots) GV Police and police vehicles. Smoke rising from burning huts GV Police with dogs escorting people away from camp (2 shots) GV Police watch smoke, site with mountains in background (2 shots) CU Rev. Luckett answering question on fate of squatters GV Damaged camp site inspected by squatters (2 shots) GV Camp with trucks leaving as people clean up (2 shots) GV & SV People who had been evicted waiting on roadside (2 shots) GV & FULL BACK Camp SPEECH ON CASSETTE (TRANSCRIPT) REV. LUCKETT: "Well, that's unclear, but it seems very likely that they'll be shipped back to the Transvaal or Siskei. We have no access to the authorities to the prisons, even lawyers have had no report back from the prisons, there's absolutely no communication from them. But it's our suspicion that they'll be shipped back. Of course that leaves us with great human problems because some children have been separated from their mothers, I in fact have three young babies in my home at this point in time that are separated from their mothers during the raid this morning." BB
- Embargoed: 4th September 1981 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NYANGA, SOUTH AFRICA
- City:
- Country: South Africa
- Topics: General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAEB3PGDVX49TX70B5P80G9ADME
- Aspect Ratio:
- Story Text: INTRODUCTION: South African riot police moved in on the Nyanga squatters' camp outside Cape Town on Wednesday (19 August) and set fire to it. An estimated 2,000 blacks were evicted or arrested in the dawn raid. South Africa's Cooperation and Development Minister Piet Koornhof said the police action was designed to defuse the situation after talks broke down between the government and representatives of the squatters. The squatters, who are seeking homes and jobs in Cape Town, had defied orders to move out of the camp for five weeks.
SYNOPSIS: The police arrived at the controversial camp on the bleak Cape Flats at dawn. Reporters and photographers were barred from the area as about 100 police in 80 vehicles, and assisted by dogs, sealed off the camp.
No incidents were reported as the blacks, mostly women and children climbed peacefully into the police vehicles.
The Reverend Sid Luckett who has befriended the squatters, was asked what would happen to them.
The squatters prayed and sang hymns as the police turned the centre of the camp into a bonfire. Opposition Member of Parliament Helen Suzman was called to the camp and said after watching the scene that it was a sterile way of handling a breakdown in negotiations. She said all the government thought of was "taking a big stick" to the squatters.
Some of the squatters did manage to flee, but others were rounded up within the police cordon.
It's believed most of the camp's 350 shelters were damaged in the raid. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
