http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=285&fArticleId=3139443

OPINION

If it contradicts Sutcliffe it must be anarchy
March 3, 2006

City Manager Michael Sutcliffe claims (The Mercury, (February 28) that he “at every step . . . responded timeously” to requests by shack dwellers to stage a legal march. This is untrue.

He has, since November, consistently acted against the law to illegally prevent shack dwellers from exercising their democratic rights.

The Freedom of Expression Institute has catalogued Sutcliffe’s unconstitutional behaviour in this regard and it is now documented in a court judgment. However, it is also disturbing to read that Sutcliffe said that “we will be asking serious questions of the court because we cannot allow anarchy”.

The shack dwellers have always complied with every detail of the Gatherings Act when giving notification of an intention to stage a legal march. This is now a matter of record.

However, it is now also a matter of record that Sutcliffe and the police have consistently acted illegally. Therefore it seems that the only way to understand Sutcliffe’s comments are that, in his view, the expression of opposition to his policies constitutes anarchy.

Richard Pithouse