Kimberley - The police in Kimberley have come under fire for shooting rubber bullets at protesting residents in Club 2000, injuring a teenage boy.
Kagisho Langa, 13, was hit by a rubber bullet in his back on Monday evening when police opened fire with rubber bullets at residents who were protesting against the lack of service delivery in the area.
Although the protest in Ward 17 in Club 2000 started earlier in the morning, by midday the situation calmed down. It erupted again in the evening in Ward 31, another part of Club 2000.
On Tuesday Langa’s mother, Boitumelo, said she was shocked when her child arrived home crying.
“He was crying and showed me where he had been hit by the rubber bullet. I was shocked to realise that the police could do this . . . clearly it is worrying,” she said.
Langa said that he was standing with his friends in Absolom Street when the incident happened.
“We were innocently standing around chatting among ourselves and suddenly the police started shooting and people ran in all directions. I ran too but the next moment I felt an intense pain on my back... I was terrified and started crying,” Langa said.
He added that another teenager in the area was also hit by a rubber bullet in the neck.
However, efforts to locate the second teenager were futile on Tuesday as Langa and some of the residents in the area did not know where he lives.
Residents said that the shooting of rubber bullets and the injuring of the teenagers “proved that police are becoming a law unto themselves”.
“This conduct by reckless, trigger-happy cowboys in our police service shows that they lack respect for the community. The measures they use to determine a hostile situation need to be probed because we do not think that our conduct warranted them using force,” one group of residents said.
The councillor for Ward 31, Moses Nhlapo, said that although Monday evening’s protest happened in front of his house with residents burning tyres, he was not aware of teenagers being injured when the police dispersed the crowd.
“My understanding is that the police dispersed the protesters because they wanted to burn down my house,” Nhlapo said.
Northern Cape police spokesman, Lieutenant Sergio Kock, said that the police fired rubber bullets because they were under attack from the residents.
“Police officers were dispatched to Club 2000 to assist in crowd control. When the situation got volatile the police warned the crowd to disperse but instead the protesters pelted the police with stones. The police were forced to use rubber bullets,” Kock said.
He said that according to their information, no one was injured in the incident and that no reports of injuries were made to the police.
He added that they would continue to monitor the situation.
Meanwhile, residents on Tuesday said that they were not pleased by the Sol Plaatje Municipality’s failure to unblock some of the drains in the area and to remove or disinfect the sewage water that had collected at the corner of Tirisano and Edward Moeng streets.
“The municipality is continuing to disrespect us by refusing us services that we are paying for. We reported the blocked sewerage system and the sewage water that collected at the intersection weeks ago and until now they have not done anything to resolve the problem. They are provoking us,” the residents said.
Spokesman for the Sol Plaatje Municipality Sello Matsie said that all the blocked drains in the area had been attended to and that the municipality would disinfect the sewerage water that was causing a stink in the area.
“We urge the residents not to put foreign objects such as clothes and batteries, in the sewerage network because as long as this continues, we will experience these blockages,” Matsie added.
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