Rustenburg – The mayor of Ditsobotla local municipality Daniel Buthelezi was held hostage and municipal building torched on Wednesday evening, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said.
"The DA calls on community protesters to immediately cease violence and criminal activity, and restore calm, in the face of serious service delivery protests this evening that have escalated to a hostage situation at the municipality," said Jacqueline Theologo, DA Constituency Head in Ditsobotla.
Theologo who was at the scene said about 40 community members from Phola have taken mayor Buthelezi hostage.
"The group threatened to set themselves alight, out of sheer desperation for their concerns to be heard. They had a long list of grievances and complaints about poor service delivery in Ditsobotla," she said.
She said the hostage situation was sheer lawless behaviour in a democratic society, and must be condemned.
"We understand that people are fed-up with the bad service they receive from the ANC government, and across the North West the ANC has utterly failed the people, but violence and hostage situations will never solve service delivery breakdowns – only voting out a failing government can do so."