The African National Congress has blamed its local leaders and those of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) for the violent protests in Diepsloot earlier this week.
”They allowed the situation to get out of control,” Pule Buthelezi, the general secretary of the ANC in the greater Johannesburg region, said on Friday.
He said all local structures of the ANC and Sanco should hold an annual general meeting within the coming four weeks to elect new leaders.
”We are acknowledging that the current leadership was painted by what happened in Diepsloot,” he said.
However, Buthelezi said that some people might be re-elected to their current positions and the ”ANC sees that as new leadership”.
Diepsloot residents went on the rampage, stoning cars and burning property in protest of their rumoured removal to Brits in the North West province.
Twenty people were arrested on charges of arson and public violence after residents destroyed a government building and stoned motorists.
Seventeen people appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and the case was postponed to late next month.
Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane said police were searching for the three residents who did not turn up at the court on Thursday.
The rumour, which residents accused ANC ward councillor Salphina Malauzi of spreading, has been denied by the Gauteng government and Johannesburg city council.
Buthelezi said local ANC and Sanco leaders met on Thursday to investigate the cause of the violence.
The meeting observed that ”there is a deliberate campaign to discredit the ward councillor comrade Malauzi”.
”There has been weak communication lines between the local structures and the community”, which led to a small group of people ”spreading the malicious rumour”, he said.
The meeting called on the local leadership to apologise to the Diepsloot community for ”their ill-disciplined behaviour”.
”Within the coming four weeks, all the local structures of [the] ANC and Sanco should hold annual general meetings so that members can elect new leaders,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, Morokane said police will maintain a strong presence in Diepsloot.
”We will continue to keep a strong presence in the area. We are prepared for any eventuality that might occur,” he said.
The situation in Diepsloot, north-west of Johannesburg, has been calm since Thursday following three days of protests.
”The past 48 hours have been calm,” Morokane said. ”We don’t expect any problems.”
Joe Legodi, a Diepsloot community leader, also said the township is calm.
”It’s quiet this [Friday] morning. I don’t know about later,” he said.
The Landless People’s Movement contended on Friday the city council intends relocating the community ahead of the Soccer World Cup in 2010.
”In 2002 the first big wave of post-apartheid forced removals began to clear informal settlements out of the way before the World Summit of Sustainable Development came to town,” the movement said in a statement.
”Now that the World Cup is on its way, it is clear that the Johannesburg Metro Council is planning to do the same to make foreign visitors believe that South Africa is a country for the rich.”
Meanwhile, officials from the Gauteng housing department distributed about 10 000 pamphlets on Friday explaining to the community that it will not be relocated.
”The pamphlets are in Zulu, Sotho and English,” spokesperson Mongezi Mnyanihe said. ”They [residents] really welcomed this initiative.” — Sapa