Police National Commissioner Bheki Cele will be visiting strife-torn Wesselton near Ermelo, the scene of violent service delivery protests, Mpumalanga police said on Tuesday.
Captain Leonard Hlathi said Cele was expected to arrive in Ermelo between noon and 1pm on Wednesday to assess the situation for himself.
Earlier on Tuesday Cele said a team of highly skilled police officers, including those experienced in crowd control, had been deployed to Ermelo.
“While people have the constitutional right to express unhappiness with any service delivery issue affecting them, they need to do so within the boundary of the law,” he said.
“An escalation of violence including the burning of tyres, throwing of stones and firing of live ammunition by demonstrators as well as assault of media crew in the area has demanded high intervention.”
Captain Carla Prinsloo said 48 people were arrested for public violence on Tuesday, including 10 teenagers aged between 15 and 18.
Police were expected to be processing arrest dockets late into the night, she said.
“[However] everything is peaceful and quiet at present.”
Earlier in the day, protesters fired live ammunition, burned tyres, threw stones and blocked roads.
An eNews cameraman was injured and an outside broadcast van was damaged when protesters turned on him.
Live television footage on the eNews channel showed a group stoning a police vehicle, which sped away, then rushing towards the cameraman and journalist, who sought cover in their van.
Hlathi said the police fired live ammunition at walls during the protest to safeguard police and journalists’ vehicles.
“We did not hurt anyone. We needed to safeguard people’s lives,” he said, pointing out that the protesters had also been firing live rounds.
‘They are hiring mostly women’
Unemployed Wesselton resident Musa Moya said the community was upset because they had not chosen the people nominated to stand for election in the local government elections.
“They are hiring those who they know, their friends and their families and they are hiring mostly women,” said Moyo.
He blamed corruption for poor service delivery — the protesters’ main grievance. “We want RDP houses, water and electricity,” he said.
He had sent his children to stay with relatives until the turmoil was over. Police escorted shop owners and their goods out of the area late on Tuesday as protesters started looting shops.
Somalian shop owners had also fallen victim to the violent service delivery protests.
Earlier, Mpumalanga cooperative governance minister Madala Masuku condemned the violence.
“This is a government chosen by the people and it has got an open-door policy and at all times is willing to engage in dialogue with our people to ensure that we solve all problems,” he said in a statement.
“It therefore raises the question, why engage in acts of violence when the government you have chosen is willing to meet with you.”
The government would not tolerate any criminal behaviour that threatened people’s lives, government institutions, and public property.
The people of Ermelo and Wesselton needed to practice restraint and stay calm, he said.
Hlathi said 33 people were arrested in connection with public violence in the area on Monday.
They appeared in the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday and were granted R200 bail each. The case was postponed to March 8.
“No schools and no operations are taking place at the moment. The township has come to a standstill,” he said.
The Democratic Alliance attributed the violence to conflict within the ANC’s ranks.
“The communities at Wesselton are fed up with hollow promises by those in power who are unable to deliver acceptable services and who no longer enjoy the support of the community who elected them into power,” DA councillor Stephan Greyling said in a statement.
“The dilemma that the community faces is, to replace one set of careless, greedy leaders by another group of power hungry representatives is a much too risky option.”
He said the DA appealed to the community in Wesselton not to voice their anger and dissatisfaction through violence, but to use the power of their vote to elect an alternative, responsible government which would attend to poor service delivery issues. – Sapa