Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi will not be visiting Khutsong residents near Carletonville on Friday afternoon, his office said.
Residents of the township on Johannesburg’s West Rand have been protesting since Wednesday against a proposal that the Merafong municipality, which includes Carletonville and Khutsong, be included in the North West province. At the moment, it is part of Gauteng.
The executive mayor of the West Rand district municipality, Sister Bernard Ncube, on Thursday told more than 2 000 residents that Mufamadi would be coming to address them on the matter.
”The minister is not going to go there. He is not scheduled to. I don’t know how they could go around making such proclamations,” spokesperson Bheki Nkonyane said.
Nkonyane said it is difficult to say whether Mufamadi would visit the area at all in the near future.
”But if the situation demands, yes, obviously he will have to consider going there. Nothing is set at this stage.”
The South African Communist Party treasurer for Khutsong, Paul Ncwane, said: ”If he’s not coming, then there will be a lot of trouble.”
Since the start of the protests, residents have blocked roads leading into the townships with stones and burning tyres and set alight the local municipal offices.
On Thursday night, they threw stones at and broke windows of houses belonging to councillor Jerry Ramokgoatedi and executive mayor Des van Rooyen’s family. — Sapa