Vuwani – Government’s attempts to end the wave of violent protests in Vuwani which saw more than 20 schools burnt and damaged in recent days, seemed to flounder on Wednesday as protesters launched into a fresh bout of violence, shutting down the township and blockading roads.
Protesters returned to the streets on Wednesday, mere minutes after State Security minister David Mahlobo and his team had cleared the roads.
Mahlobo and his entourage of local Makhado municipality officials and police had moved from Mashau to Vuwani, removing barricades used by protesters to bar motorists and police from accessing the affected areas.
However, this was short-lived as protesters began throwing stones and burning tyres on the main road.
The move prompted police to use rubber bullets and teargas to disperse protesters. A helicopter was also called in as protesters retreated to a hill.
Despite top-level government intervention, residents are continuing their protest against the decision to include their villages under a new Vhembe district municipality. They are opposing a move to form part of the new Malamulele municipality, saying that they were not consulted.
At least twenty schools have been burnt down and several more badly damaged during the violence.
Government and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) have called on protesters to stop violence and to approach the court to have their grievances heard.
Earlier, a hopeful Mahlobo had told government officials that they should move into the affected villages and tell shop owners to reopen their shops.
“The other thing that we should do as local leaders is that we move in to business owners and tell them to re-open shops, they might not open for the whole day.”
Meanwhile, the local shopping complex remained closed with locals forced to walk long distances to buy basic food supplies.
“There can’t be a shut down,” Mahlobo had said.
Mahlobo also said reviving schooling in the area after the damage done to schools would be an expensive and mammoth task.
“The national education department is putting an act together, we might be able to open schools very soon, its actually going to be a mammoth task as there has to be infrastructure and there has to be a catch-up programme to regain time lost,” he said.
Mahlobo also told reporters that further discussions would be undertaken to ensure that stability was restored in the area.
“The grievance that this community has raised, we are going to engage with them, there is no government that can run away from its people when they have issues.”
On Tuesday, a meeting between traditional leaders and government resolved to ensure that schooling must operate again and government said it was considering deploying mobile classrooms and introducing additional lessons for pupils who are missing out on their schooling.
African News Agency