President Cyril Ramaphosa is nowhere to be seen as the country is burning amid a number of service delivery protests over electricity and illegal immigrants terrorising communities.
There is also a high incidence of unemployment and poverty in the country.
Yesterday alone, the ANC marched outside the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court where a group of over 80 zama zamas (illegal miners) appeared in connection illegal mining and with the rape of eight women who were shooting a music video in the mining dump.
The ANC, through its national spokesperson Pule Mabe, called on the SA National Defence Force, the community at large, all political parties and people of colour to join in the fight against crime, especially by illegal immigrants.
Residents of eMalahleni in Mpumalanga took to the streets from the early hours over what they said was high electricity and water billing.
Roads were barricaded with burning tyres, rubble, rocks and other debris.
Some went as far as vandalising public infrastructure including traffic lights and roads.
“Look, they are removing traffic lights,” shouted one resident as they recorded protesters on the rampage with a mobile phone.
According to posters that circulated on social media, this was a planned shutdown scheduled to take place yesterday.
The poster shared by a Twitter user going by the handle Birdman read: “E.C.O call Emahlahleni community members to support the total shutdown of Emalahleni, this mean Azikhwelwa on the 3rd August 2022. All community members are expected to be at Emalahleni Municipal buildings from 9am. Siyaziveza.”
It also read: “Stop Johan Coetzee now.”
Protesters later met at the eMalahleni Local Municipality, demanding to be addressed by mayor Connie Nkalitshana.
She came out to hear them out, but the crowd was too unruly, and people were speaking over each other, which led the mayor to tell them that if that continued she would not be able to address them.
“It will not be good for people who came with genuine grievances to return home without their matters being resolved. I am here because I have been elected by the community and I am here to serve the community. All residents should be served in a correct way,” said Nkalitshana.
However the crowd was getting angry and agitated and people continued to speak over each other.
Residents also said they did not want Johan Coetzee Attorneys as their debt collector.
In Slovo informal settlements, where there were also protests over electricity, residents said they had not had electricity for months.
In Tshwane, minibus taxis blocked Kgosi Mampuru Street opposite the prison, affecting motorists in the area.
Another protest yesterday took place in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, where protesters blocked entry points to Mahobieskraal and the Africa Mine with burning tyres, trees and rocks. Motorists were advised to use alternative roads until the road was cleared.
Residents in Tembisa held violent protests on Monday over high electricity and water tariff increases and the cost of living. The protest action left four people dead and municipal buildings, including a customer care centre, a library, a police station, municipal cars and other infrastructure, burned and damaged.
Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Cogta MEC Lebogang Maile visited Tembisa to gauge the underlying reasons for the protest. He undertook site visits to the torched public infrastructure and extended condolences to families who had lost their loved ones during the mayhem.
Maile invited Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell to join him on his visit. Campbell’s spokesperson told The Star that she would meet residents tomorrow.
“We have already had a discussion and an agreement with the Public Enterprises Minister on Tuesday through a text that there will be a meeting with Gauteng mayors on some of the issues that are frustrating them in relation to electricity,” Maile said.
He said the issue of billing was affecting a number of people, including himself.
“I am affected as I speak to you. There are outages and load shedding but we still receive huge bills. Those are some of the issues that municipalities should resolve. What happened in Tembisa is a concern to us,” he said.
ANC protesters called on the government to bring the army to assist in the fight against crime and said the picket also formed part of the ANC’s campaign against gender-based violence and femicide.
However, this was criticised by some community members.
“It is ironic indeed for the ANC governing party to call on the government to bring in the army while they are the government. There is a cult of ignorance in the ANC, and there has always been,” said Krugersdorp resident Justice Mahlangu.
“The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that their ignorance is just as good as our knowledge,” said Mahlangu.
Mabe also called on civil society, politicians, community and ANC members to be united in order to fight crime.
“We need to start to see the visibility of the army. We need all law enforcement agencies to be united. It can’t just be organisations, the ANC, EFF, IFP, DA, ActionSA, who take to the street. We need everyone.
“Everyone must march, black and white. This thing does not just affect black people who are in townships, it affects every South African. If there is one thing we have to stand united, even beyond racial or political lines, it is this one,” he said.
He said they could not afford to have people who said “Police Minister Bheki Cele must go”. “As the ANC said, we stand on the protest line today to help reclaim our own sovereignty to make sure that the ANC can reassert, consolidate, and reclaim its ability to lead society.
“South Africa is not a playground, we are a very serious country. Those that want to come to this country must do so legally. Illegal foreign nationals have to be taken back home because we can’t afford crimes being committed by undocumented foreign nationals. We are going to have a problem with foreign nationals for as long as they are illegal,” Mabe said.
He said the ANC in Gauteng was mounting a programme in this regard.
Mabe said for the police to be effective they required communities to stand together.
He said the ANC in Gauteng was mounting a programme in this regard.
ANC Gauteng secretary TK Nciza said they were serious about the issue of illegal immigrants. He said the party in the province was mobilising society and all sectors to go to all police stations to picket.
“Enough is enough. We can't have people sleeping underground (in mines), then committing such crimes. Our government should be serious now and we see their actions. Arresting so many people should be a positive step, but we don't want it to stop here. In all areas where there is illegal mining there must be action, starting from today,” said Nciza..
ANC NEC member Dakota Legoete said as the ANC they called on lawmakers in the country to visit this matter, saying there was a need to change legislation to protect South Africans.
“It is evident that some unkind neighbours started to harass our people and we cannot tolerate it any more. It must be clear that if anything is illegal we are going to challenge it as South Africans because if people come all the way from their country and commit crime it cannot be tolerated,” said Legoete.
ANC NEC member Nomvula Mokonyane, who was part of the picket, said lasting solutions should be found in regard to the problem of illegal immigrants.
“We have got four members of Cosas who were killed by the apartheid system at this very mine shaft and today we have our children who were sexually molested and they are not the only ones. A few weeks ago four other girls were raped and killed here. We live under terror because of these illegal immigrants,” Mokonyane said.
Gauteng Commissioner General Elias Mawela said they were confident about the gang-rape investigations.
“I am confident that we will definitely have a credible case on the evidence collected on the ground because immediately we were informed about the incident we mobilised a specialised unit... We believe that what (evidence) we have collected is going to assist us in putting together a solid case,” said Mawela.
He urged the public to be patient while the forensic officers collect DNA.
ANC chair for peace and stability David Mahlobo said issues of unemployment and the high cost of living posed a threat to the country.
“We are concerned that the current socio-economic conditions of high levels of unemployment in our country, especially affecting the youth. We are also concerned by the high level of crime and criminality, especially certain organised syndicates that are domestic but some of them have international connection, for example, gangs operating in mining zones in Mpumalanga, Gauteng, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and some parts of North West that are terrorising communities that are also involved in high levels of criminality around the attacks on critical infrastructure like roads, water and electricity,” said Mahlobo.
He said these are some of the issues discussed at the conference that government must be able to respond to very decisively in stamping out issues of lawlessness but also addressing socio-economic conditions.
Mahlobo said the ANC was going to establish an anti-corruption unit dedicated to dealing with cadres accused of issues of corruption.
“It was the biggest mistake that the ANC did away with the Scorpions,” said Mahlobo.
The Star contacted Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, asking if the president had a response on the protests,
“It’s been published everywhere and as a journalist you should have seen it,” said Magwenya.