Pubdate: Tue, 19 Feb 2008
Source: Times, The (South Africa)
Copyright: 2008 The Times
Contact:  http://www.thetimes.co.za/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1335
Author: Michael Hamlyn, I-Net Bridge

ZILLE PLANS ANOTHER ANTI-DRUG MARCH

The leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, 
is once again going to challenge the authorities by marching against 
gangsterism and drugs in a community where the drug lords are thriving.

She announced that on Sunday she would conduct a march through the streets 
of Macassar in the east of the city, near Somerset West. A statement issued 
on Friday by her party said: "Macassar is one of the many communities in 
the Western Cape that have been ravaged by drug abuse and gangsterism."

In September last year, Zille was arrested while leading a gathering 
outside a police station in Woodlands, Mitchell's Plain, where she had also 
been marching against the drug lords.

Seven weeks later the charges against her were dropped. "These were always 
trumped up charges, and I do not believe that they were the result of 
ineptitude by the SAPS, but rather of something more sinister," she said.

"To arrest people when they have not contravened any law or regulation, 
demonstrates once again the growing tendency by the authorities to 
undermine the constitution and treat people's rights as if they were 
arbitrary favours granted by the police and the ruling party." 
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