BY NOTHANDO MAKHUBELA AND ERIC KGOMO
MASOYI : The police in Mpumalanga condemn a violent behaviour displayed by the community during a protest at Masoyi in the early hours of Monday 29 March 2021. During the poor service delivery unrest, the community went on a rampage, looting thousands of bread before torching a bakery truck and a bus as well as damaging windows of another bus that was passing the village.
Mumalanga Provincial Police pokesperson, Brigadier Leonard Hlathi, said the police were notified about a protest action carried out by Masoyi residents in the early hours of Monday 29 March. “The public order policing members were since deployed to deal with the prevailing and unfortunate situation. Whilst in the area, police received information about protesters who barricaded the road at Nkanini in Masoyi where the bakery truck was reportedly stopped by these individuals who then instructed its driver to alight from the truck. It is said that they then looted about 12 000 loaves of bread from the said truck before burning it,” said Hlathi. He added that later in the day, a bus driver also became under attack at Mahushu, where protestors are said to have barricaded the road with different objects and ordered him to get off the bus then torched it. “Another bus was also not spared as its windows were smashed. The drivers were however not harmed during the incidents,” Hlathi explained. Halthi said the police continue to monitor the situation and that arrests are eminent. The Provincial Commissioner of police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma, has strongly condemned the violent protest and said there will be no room for lawless behaviour. “When people decide to protest due to challenges that they are faced with in their communities, whether as a result of poor service delivery or any other matter, they should know that their actions must be conducted within the ambit of the law,” said Zuma. He urged that the community must also not allow a situation where some unscrupulous individuals with ulterior criminal motives hijack their course, take advantage of community challenges and use such opportunity to steal and destroy property. “Our country is governed by formidable laws and people cannot do as they wish,” he said. Zuma has since assembled a task team of investigators to probe this lawlessness behaviour with a view to bring those responsible to account.
