FRIDAY, 8.00AM:
A PROTEST meeting in Bushbuckridge, Northern Province, turned violent when constitutional affairs minister Mohammed Valli Moosa failed to arrive to address the crowd. Police shot and seriously injured four people afer the crowd had erected barricades and burnt a police vehicle.
Bushbuckridge is a disputed area, given to the Northern Province despite calls by residents for it to be part of Mpumalanga. Deputy President Thabo Mbeki last month instructed Moosa to settle the border dispute between the provinces, which has been the cause of sporadic demonstations in the area for several days.
Yesterday’s protest meeting, attended by a crowd of 10 000, was arranged by a pro-Mpumalanga committee which had invited Moosa to listen to their demands. When he failed to arrive, crowds chanting “Moosa, Moosa, liar, liar” marched out of the stadium to the nearby R40 national highway, which they barricaded with trees and motor car wrecks. This was the second barricade to be built on the highway — police had dismantled another on Wednesday to rescue trapped tourists.
What happened next is unclear: police say the demonstators began stoning passing cars and burnt a police patrol vehicle. The committee has denied this and accused police of firing into an unarmed crowd, shooting four people including an ANC councillor who was addressing the crowd at the time. Yesterday’s only official comment was that police and army reinforcements have been moved into the area.