The national co-ordinator of Pagad, Abdus Salaam Ebrahim, was arrested in a dawn raid at his home, police said.
|||Cape Town - The national co-ordinator of Pagad, Abdus Salaam Ebrahim, was arrested in a dawn raid on Wednesday.
Pagad spokesman Cassiem Parker said police arrested Ebrahim at his home in Lansdowne Road at 5.30am.
At publication time on Wednesday, Ebrahim was still being held at Gugulethu police station.
The arrest comes on the eve of Pagad’s fourth “Motorcade Awareness Campaign Against Gangsterism and Drugs”.
The past three motorcades have been in the Athlone area, and Wednesday night’s motorcade is planned for Grassy Park.
Parker said the purpose was “to highlight the problem of drugs in the area, to raise awareness and to encourage people to share their disgust and opposition to drugs”.
“If this arrest is an attempt to stop us then it will not work... it will intensify our efforts,” he said.
Police were not due to release details of the arrest until a possible court appearance, which must occur within 48 hours.
On July 25 bombs were hurled at a house and a car dealership in Athlone, at the same time as a Pagad protest in the area.
Pagad denied any involvement in the blasts, which caused relatively minor damage.
Cape Argus