City traffic disrupted by metro police

By Rhodé Marshall
15 August 2007

This morning members of the Cape Town metro police used blockading the N2 Highway near Mowbray, as a method to express dismay about the downgrading of their posts and their new salaries.

“The illegal and unprotected action is as a result of the unhappiness and dissatisfaction of the metro police officers,” says Metro Police spokesperson Kevin Maxwell.

The metro police department was recently restructured which resulted in the downgrading of posts and change in many salaries.

“About 50 police cars travelling in convoy towards town were used to slow traffic to a crawl,” says Maxwell.

Maxwell says he is not sure why the group of protesters have chosen to use this as a method, because it will obviously cause chaos to rush-hour traffic.

“There is provision for them to lodge their objections or their grievances, however this specific group of metro police members decided to go by it through this action,” says Maxwell.

Maxwell added that this is a sad day for police within the city of Cape Town, that some of their members decided to act in this way.

“We don’t condone this at all and would like to apologise to the general public, especially the motoring public for the disruptions that were created, says Maxwell.

All the members that took part in the protest are gathering outside the Civic Centre to hand over a memorandum to the Chief of the Metro Police, Bongani Jonas.

“The content of the memorandum is unclear to us at the moment,” says Maxwell.