Pretoria - Police and Ekangala residents were on Monday locked in a tense stand-off triggered by the alleged assault of the councillor for the area, Dan Mabona, at the weekend.
Mabona was allegedly beaten up by residents of Marikana informal settlement on Sunday, sending residents of Ekangala (Bronkhorstspruit) area, east of the city, into a rage and accusing police of failing to deal with the matter.
“My brother (Dan) had a public meeting in Section C where he was addressing the community,” said Jabu Mabona, the chief whip of the Tshwane Metro Council.
“Towards the end of the meeting, some residents went in and disrupted proceedings. They had a list of demands that they wanted him to sign.”
The list included basic services such as water and electricity as well as proper housing and complaints about an “unreasonable time frame”.
“As ward councillor, he is not allowed to sign a memorandum. So, when he refused, they assaulted him,” he explained.
Mabona’s house was petrol-bombed on Sunday evening following his brother’s assault while he and his family were present.
“We were not sleeping. We heard the bomb and ran out to the sitting room. The flames were all over. The paint is enamel, so it caught fire easily. We used buckets of water to extinguish the fire. It took about 20 minutes,” Mabona said.
The window where the petrol bomb was thrown into was broken, while curtains and part of the couch were damaged, as well as a portion of the ceiling.
He said he opened a case of malicious damage to property.
Eunice Moloi, another resident, said the councillor was taken to Ekangala police station, where he was beaten up again in full view of police officers.
“The police did nothing during that time,” Moloi said.
The councillor was forced to sign the memorandum, which police stamped, even though he was being assaulted throughout the signing, according to witnesses.
He was taken to a nearby hospital and was discharged on Monday afternoon.
On Monday, Ekangala residents spent the day protesting, angry that police had not done anything about the assault of their councillor.
And what started off as a stand-off between Ekangala and Marikana residents quickly turned into a tense war involving police and Ekangala residents. As the Ekangala group charged towards their much smaller Marikana counterparts, the police intervened. The larger group threw stones and bricks in the direction of the police and Marikana residents, while police in Nyala vehicles fired rubber bullets.
They were eventually forced by the police to find solace in the neighbouring Rethabiseng.
Gauteng police spokesman Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said they were appealing to the community to report any wrongdoings of the men in blue in the matter.
“These allegations should be investigated,” he said.
Pretoria News