Johannesburg - EFF leader Julius Malema has issued a civil war warning after he was confronted by a group of men armed with knobkieries and spears.
Journalists and photographers were also caught in the crossfire and had to duck for cover from machete-wielding men pelting them with rocks.
This was as Malema and his supporters came under attack during a walkabout at a hostel in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni, on Tuesday.
Malema and his supporters found themselves at the centre of chaotic scenes, with gunshots and rubber bullets being fired at the Sethokga hostel in the township.
He was visiting the area where two of his party supporters, Kenneth Matjomane and Tsietsi Mathibe, were killed last month.
The violence comes at a time of intense election campaigning with just more than a month to go before the local government elections are held.
On Tuesday, there was a standoff between a large group of hostel dwellers who stopped Malema and his supporters in their tracks while entering the hostel.
This resulted in the police firing live ammunition and rubber bullets as they tried to defuse the tension.
At least two journalists and some supporters were assaulted with knobkieries and struck with rocks.
Malema was repeatedly advised by the police to retreat.
However, a defiant Malema moved in and confronted one man and disarmed him as metro police officers looked on.
Malema then charged that the men were behind the violence that resulted in the death of the two EFF supporters last month.
Police then tried to whisk Malema away in a Nyala armoured vehicle but the EFF commander-in-chief refused to leave his supporters behind.
He charged straight to where the men were forming a ring of steel to stop him.
Malema accused the police of encouraging political intolerance and violence by advising him to leave the area. He said the “thugs” wanted to make it a no-go area.
After protracted negotiations by the police to convince the angry hostel dwellers, who taunted Malema and his supporters and threatened them with bloodshed, Malema retreated and left the area.
He went straight to Rabasotho police station to issue a stern warning to the police.
“You’re putting this country on a (footing for) civil war because the day police refuse to act is the day we are going to be forced to defend ourselves. We will do that,” Malema told the station’s top brass.
“This country will burn because police are not acting. Police are coming to tell me to get into a van, that I must run away from criminals who are violating the constitution of South Africa, which gives freedom of movement and free political activity.”
Malema said he wasn’t going to “run away from thugs”.
He added that if the violence was allowed to start at the hostel, it would soon spread around the country and “turn into a big thing”.
“We are asking that before we defend ourselves, police must defend us. You failed in front of the whole country today to defend us against criminals,” he added.
“We went to Sethokga today and people were charging at us with weapons. The families (of those who died) are here. They haven’t been spoken to. Instead we are told of protocol; there is no protocol when people are dead.”
Malema lost his cool when the police station’s cluster commander, Major-General Vincent Leshabane, told him he had marched to the station illegally. He accused Leshabane of not understanding the law, adding he was “useless and should be fired”.
@thabiso_tk
The Star