Demonstrators celebrate at Fourth Beach in Clifton on Friday December 28, 2018, after a sheep was slaughtered in a cleansing ceremony.
An animal rights activist started shouting at one of the protesters, allegedly telling him "the only thing you know is to kill". She was hit on the chest with a sandal by a protester and claimed to have had her phone stolen.
A police general told him the situation would escalate beyond officers' control if they intervened. He explained that the protesters also made claims to their constitutional, religious and cultural rights, and it was not the police's role to make a constitutional determination.
He pointed out that ritual slaughter happened regularly on beaches such as Monwabisi in Khayelitsha, and police did not intervene in such cases.
Deputy police minister Bongani Mkongi, who attended Friday's protest, said he would "go hard" at security company Private Protection Alternatives and the City of Cape Town over what happened on Sunday.