With spreading taxi violence across Cape Town, cases of unrest were reported in Imizamo Yethu on Saturday.
Hout Bay police station commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Jerome Syster, had to leave a police summit in Lansdowne to reports of stone throwing, vandalism and fires. Speaking to Sentinel News on Saturday, he said seven vehicles had been damaged at the traffic circle by people throwing rocks.
A couple, whose names are unknown to Sentinel News, say they had a brick thrown at them at the traffic circle.
They told bystanders that a man jumped on their bonnet and stamped on the windscreen.
Lieutenant-Colonel Syster said no cases related to this have been opened.
The community-safety app Buzzer, which is managed by Community Crime Prevention, reported that people were throwing stones in the Dontse Yakhe section of Imizamo Yethu.
There was also a report of tyres being burnt on Hout Bay Main Road, opposite the Imizamo Yethu clinic, and Buzzer advised avoiding the road near the township and the clinic.
Fire and Rescue Service spokesman, Jermaine Carelse, said a call was received from Hout Bay police that a vehicle was alight in Imizamo Yethu, just after 11.32am on Saturday.
He said the crew from Hout Bay found a vehicle “well alight” and extinguished it just before midday.
As the crew was about to leave, they were stoned, which resulted in the windscreen of a fire vehicle being damaged. A case of malicious damage to property was laid at Hout Bay police station.
Meanwhile, Imizamo Yethu residents have struggled to get to work. On social media, a Newlands resident with a broken toe appealed for advice on how to get his domestic worker from Hout Bay after having Uber cancel on him three times.
According to a Constantia resident, her gardener could not get from Imizamo Yethu on Friday. She said he eventually borrowed a bicycle to get there the following day.
On the Hout Bay CPF Facebook page, a letter from South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) Western Cape dated Sunday August 6, states that the taxi strike will continue until Wednesday August 9 because “the talks with the government to resolve the cause for the stay away” have been unsuccessful.
The statement said Santaco was open to talks with the government to find a speedy resolution and it called on all taxi operators not to interfere with other modes of transport and not to take part in any criminal activity.
On Monday August 7, ward councillor Roberto Quintas said 109 Route MyCiTi buses to Hout Bay were deviating through Princess Circle to avoid Imizamo Yethu.
