President Thabo Mbeki has instructed police to clamp down on violent protests by Khutsong residents in the run-up to the municipal elections, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported on Monday.
Mbeki made it clear, the SABC reported, that the state will not tolerate any criminal activity that violates people’s constitutional right to vote.
”I think that what is happening in Khutsong is thoroughly unacceptable,” Mbeki said.
People have the right to voice their objections to Khutsong’s re-demarcation.
”But I think it is very, very wrong for people to use violence against people who have a different point of view.
”Certainly we can’t allow people to go around burning other people’s houses, and stoning people and so on. That is a criminal act. We can’t allow criminal acts to be perpetrated like that. So the police have to act,” Mbeki said.
Meanwhile, Khutsong, on the West Rand, remained tense on Monday afternoon, police said.
Small groups were still gathering in the area, burning tyres and occasionally stoning police patrols, spokesperson Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said.
”We are monitoring the situation and maintaining an adequate presence,” she said.
Earlier in the day, about 800 high-school pupils stoned Khutsong police station, injuring three police officers. The pupils also broke several windows.
On Sunday, police used tear gas to disperse residents protesting the incorporation of Khutsong into the North West. The protest took place outside the local stadium where African National Congress chairperson and Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota was holding a municipal election meeting for the ANC.
Twenty-eight people were arrested on Sunday and none on Monday, Martins-Engelbrecht said.
On Sunday, Lekota told the SABC that protests in Khutsong will end in time for the March 1 elections to take place there.
”By the time March 1 comes, the climate will be right, we are working here. I’m coming back here tomorrow [Monday],” he said. ”There’s no question about it, an election will be held here.”
A spokesperson for the Merafong local municipality — under which Khutsong falls — said some residents had intimidated others and told them not to attend Lekota’s meeting on Sunday.
”They were threatened with the burning of their houses,” Seabo Gaeganelwe said.
The SABC reported that police had to escort ANC members home after the meeting. — Sapa