Kimberley – Residents from King Senare Forestview near Soul City have laid charges of inciting violence against Sol Plaatje executive mayor Mangaliso Matika, following a protest where stun grenades were fired and a number of residents were hit by rubber bullets on Wednesday morning.
The service delivery protest started at around 3am on the Barkly West Road near Tswelelopele Correctional Services Centre but was later moved to Nobengula Road to prevent the disruption of traffic on the main road.
Tyres were set alight and buckets of raw sewage were emptied onto the streets.
Residents were angry that illegal shack dwellers were refusing to move off the plots so that the municipality could install basic services.
“We were staging a peaceful protest when six people were shot with rubber bullets. One woman was shot in the head and had to be hospitalised,” said a resident.
A group of residents, who claimed to be the original inhabitants of the land in ward 31, said that they had been resettled in Phutanang for 14 years, where they were living without any services.
“Nothing has been done to remove the illegal occupants who invaded the land and who are up until today refusing to vacate our plots. We wrote several letters to the mayor to order the Red Ants to evict them because bribes were exchanged for land."
“There are people such as police officers, councillors and government officials, who do not qualify to stay here, who are living here. Those that live luxury lifestyles and have satellite dishes, toilets and running water are staying here, while we are destitute and desperate for a house. Some have illegal electricity connections.”
Sol Plaatje executive mayor Mangaliso Matika assured the protesters that the municipality had approached the court to remove the illegal land occupants.
“We will meet with them and ask them to leave in a peaceful manner. The municipality has been undermined and disrespected for a long time. I was here during the last election where I tried to stop the mess from happening but it is continuing unabated,” said Matika.
“We cannot tolerate these transgressions and will provide feedback to the community next week. We realise that this process has taken a long time. We will first deal with the relocation process after determining who came first and last on the list and then begin with the installation of services including water, electricity and sanitation.”
A community member from King Senare Forestview, Abel Sebeela, said that the majority of residents in ward 14 distanced themselves from the protest and felt targeted during the mayor’s address to the protesters.
“We laid charges against the mayor because we do not feel safe. The protesters have been instigated into burning us out of our shacks and taking the law into their own hands, when we are the rightful owners of the land. We have the original list of housing beneficiaries and we are certain that the beneficiary list will be tampered with to benefit certain individuals who do not deserve land,” said Sebeela.
Former ward councillor Nombulelo Modise, who also stays in the area, said that there were 112 land invaders who wanted to lay claim to their homes.
“There is not enough land for everyone as there are only 61 shacks here. I started this process when I was still the councillor, to allocate plots to the correct beneficiaries, as everyone has a right to a house.
“The municipality can approach me any time so that I can provide them with the correct information and supporting documents,” said Modise.
“The protesters were banging on passing vehicles during the protest and were unruly.”
Other community members felt that they were being treated like foreigners in their own country.
Police spokesperson, Colonel Mohale Ramatseba, confirmed that the police were investigating a case of public violence as well as another case of inciting violence.
“The police used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who were barricading the N8, Schmidtsdrift, Teboho Kock, R31 and Nobengula roads with stones and burning tyres. No reports were received of any person being injured by stun grenades or rubber bullets,” said Ramatseba.
He added that the protesters later dispersed and the roads were cleared after the intervention of the police on Wednesday afternoon.
“There was no damage reported, apart from the burning of tyres.”
Ramatseba stated that no arrests had been made yet in connection with the charges.