While the CCID will always support the right to legal, peaceful protest, we strongly condemn any action that disrupts the lives and livelihood of Central City stakeholders, whether it takes the form simply of threat or actual damage to property or indeed any unlawful behaviour.
The CCID stands firmly behind its partners, namely the City’s primary law enforcement agencies and SAPS, in whatever action they will take to put preventative measures in place to ensure that we do not see a repeat, on 29 November, of the criminal activity that occurred last month.
At the time of issuing this release, the City of Cape Town was still seeking to hear the outcome of the interdict it has applied for to stop the illegal march planned for Friday 29 November.
Irrespective of the outcome, the CCID would still ask all Central City stakeholders – from both formal and informal retailers and traders to offices, accommodation establishments and visitors – to exercise caution on 29 November and make themselves aware of the latest news as it unfolds. There will be a number of ways in which to do this: the CCID will itself be tweeting relevant news should it become necessary to do so (@CapeTownCCID) as well as Facebooking (Cape Town Central City Improvement District.) We also recommend that businesses and other individuals who are in town (or planning to come to town) keep themselves posted through reliable sources such as news bulletins broadcast at half-hourly intervals via radio stations such 567 Cape Talk and 94.5 Kfm.
Business associations such as the Cape Chamber of Commerce have urged businesses not to be intimidated and stay open for business. In turn, our own Public Safety Officers will be on duty throughout the Central City, as usual, to render assistance to the public, and of course as the CCID we will do whatever it is in our mandate to do to assist Law Enforcement and SAPS by being additional eyes and ears on the street.
The CCID stands with the group of prominent Capetonians and respected leaders, including the likes of Archbishops Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba, who have signed a code calling on all South Africans to refuse to accept threats of ungovernablity and to rather promote human dignity and equality. We thus sincerely hope that 29 November will pass without incident, but we also stress that a cautionary and aware approach is always a sensible and logical plan to have in place.
As we would always do in the normal course of our business, we also urge all Central City stakeholders and visitors to the area to ensure they have the following 24/7 numbers to hand, should an emergency of any nature occur at any time of the year.
SAPS Central City: 021 467 8001/2
City Metro Police: 0860 765 423
City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management: 080 911 4357
City Law Enforcement: 021 596 1999
Emergency, Ambulance, Health, Noise & Fire: 107 (landlines/021 480 7700)
CCID Hotline within the Cape Town CBD: 082 415 7127