The Seskhona People’s Rights Movement has denied any allegations that the organisation plans to invade the renowned Rondebosch Common. It has been reported that the civic organisation plans to invade the open piece of land on Monday 6th April, in an attempt to draw attention to their fight for social justice. But Seskona spokesperson Sithembile Majova said the report is untrue and the organisation had not plans to invade land.

“Seskhona as a human rights organization cannot invade land without taking legal steps so everything that we do is within the legal framework of the law. And we will not embark on anything that is not legal,” said Majova.

But Majova hastened to add that Seskhona would not stand in their way of a small group of members erecting their shacks there.

“The organizations’ leadership did not encourage anyone to invade the land on the common. Whoever is spreading the story is just trying to smear us and make us look bad in the eyes of the public.”

April 6th is also known Van Riebeeck’s Day – the day that Jan Van Riebeeck landed in the Cape of Good Hope.

Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the City of Cape Town’s law enforcement agencies will be keeping their eye on the Common.

Smith said that the threat was originally made by the EFF, and crime intelligence pointed to the invasion possibly over the Easter weekend

“They [invaders] presume that we will be too busy to attend to it,” said Smith.

The City has been on high alert since the open field was set alight on Sunday. According to Smith, the arson attack appeared to be the same modus operandi used by Seskhona.

“We will monitor the issue and respond to the invasion when it happens as we did with the invasion in Marikana and in Siqalo.”

Smith added that since the land in question is not privately owned land, they will do their best to ensure that it is not invaded illegally. VOC (Imogen Vollenhoven)