The Johannesburg city council called a meeting for Monday afternoon after two girls were raped and a boy stabbed during an illegal mass ”celebration” at the city’s popular Zoo Lake parklands on Saturday.
Meanwhile authorities seem unable to name the organiser of the event, marred by violence, rowdy behaviour and traffic congestion. City council representative Khotso Chikane said: ”We regret what has happened. It is disturbing to say the least. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this kind of behaviour.”
The meeting would try to identify who organised the event, and exactly what went wrong. Police, alerted to the event when residents in the area complained of loud noise and traffic congestion, arrested an 18-year-old man ”in the act” of raping a girl. They were still looking for the boy who raped another girl and whoever stabbed a 16-year-old boy at the event.
Around 6 000 children, teenagers and young adults converged on Zoo Lake on Saturday to celebrate National Children’s Day. However, authorities say no official events had been organised. The crowd played music and many went on a drinking spree.
Last year there was an official celebration at Zoo Lake, but that was marred by the drowning of two 13-year-old children and further festivities were cancelled.
Captain Mashadi Selepe said it appeared the teenagers and young adults had converged on the parklands thinking it was their day to celebrate. Their gathering, for which there was no official permission, was illegal.
The police were not notified before the time and Chikane said authorities did not receive any requests for the staging of an event. – Sapa