Monthly Archives: June 2012

Cops warn of ‘Cloud Nine’ cannibal attacks

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Miami – Miami police have warned of a potent new mind-altering drug called “Cloud Nine”, after a snarling homeless man threatened to eat two officers a week after a grisly face-gnawing attack.

The ecstasy-like drug is part of a new line of over-the-counter “bath salts” implicated in an attack last week in which a growling naked man chewed off most of a homeless man’s face before being shot dead by police.

The police department is now warning officers to be extremely cautious around disorderly homeless men and telling the public to call police immediately if they see anyone showing signs of being on the new drug.

In the latest incident, police took Brandon De Leon into custody after he entered a restaurant shouting obscenities and initially resisted arrest.

On the way to the station he slammed his head against the plexiglass barrier in the patrol car, shouting to the officers: “I’m going to eat you!”

Later, the 21-year-old growled and grunted like an animal, and tried to bite an officer’s hand, police said, prompting them to fit him with a bite mask and leg restraints.

In addition to the Cloud Nine, police also believe De Leon finished off a bottle of rum and was working on a beverage called Four Loko, which combines alcohol and caffeine. He tested positive for marijuana, Xanax and alcohol.

The case “bears resemblance to an incident that occurred in the city of Miami last week, when a male ate another man’s face”, a police memo to officers warned.

“Please be careful when dealing with the homeless population during your patrols.”

Last week a nude assailant almost killed another man by trying to bite his face off, in what some media reports have dubbed the “zombie” attack. The aggressor, Rudy Eugene, 31, was shot dead by police.

The homeless victim, who also was naked during the attack, remains hospitalized and fighting for his life.

Television footage and news photos have shown the two men sprawled on the sidewalk side by side in broad daylight, with the victim barely conscious and covered in blood.

Police have suggested Eugene was under the influence of “bath salts”, a synthetic stimulant usually sold in shops selling drug paraphanelia which produces intense hallucinations and sparks erratic, violent behavior.

Cloud Nine is “addictive and dangerous,” the memo said, part of a “disturbing trend” in which new drugs are sold in the guise of household products.

The drug, sold as “Ivory Wave” or “Cloud Nine,” comes in harmless-looking packets, police said, adding that it is illegal in Britain and Australia.

Eugene’s girlfriend, who asked not to be identified, told The Miami Herald that the frenzied attacker bore no resemblance to the man she was dating, and said he might have unwittingly been under the influence of drugs.

“The only other explanation was supernatural – that someone put a voodoo curse on him,” the woman told the daily of Eugene, who is of Haitian descent. – Sapa-AFP

 

Outrage at ambulance no-show

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People across the country have reacted with outrage and disgust to the death of electrician Mlungisi Dlamini, 25, who died after waiting for almost 20 hours for an ambulance to take him to hospital.

The poor response time by the ambulance service in the province has been roundly condemned.

The story, broken by the Pretoria News, had many South Africans relive their own personal ordeals as they called the paper and radio stations.

Gauteng Health MEC Ntombi Mekgwe told Talk Radio 702 she would be in meetings on Wednesday to try to resolve poor emergency response times.

The City of Tshwane had promised to respond to the shocking incident but failed to give a proper explanation.

The Pretoria News was first told a statement had been prepared, and the language department was still checking it. But by 6.20pm the paper was informed: “This is a very serious matter that the city takes very seriously. It is being investigated. We can only get back to you once the facts have been established.”

 

As the nation was discussing the tragedy, the Dlamini family were preparing to have Mlungisi’s body transported to KwaZulu-Natal.

His brother Sandile said he had received a call from emergency services. “They said they needed more information for their investigations and would get back to me once they were done,” said Sandile.

The family said they had to make loans to transport Mlungisi’s body. “We didn’t get any help from any government office,” he said.

DA provincial health spokesman Jack Bloom said this tragic case warranted a full investigation. There may be many other unreported cases where people have died because ambulances arrived too late, Bloom said.

“Municipalities render ambulance services on behalf of the province. There must be a management shake-up to radically improve response times. Poor performers must be fired and replaced with competent people,” said Bloom.

It was a pity that the emergency services budget was cut by R90 million this year “but every effort must be made to ensure that we have a decent ambulance service to save lives in this province”, he added.

Pretoria News reader Jamela Nkanyane lambasted emergency services and said it was a total disgrace to the nation. She also had a harrowing experience in 2009.

“I had an asthma attack. My friends called an ambulance but were told I should go to the nearest clinic. If I were able to get there on my own I wouldn’t have bothered to call.”

Nkanyane said she was eventually put in a taxi and taken to a hospital. She also lost a friend in 2006 who had an asthma attack. They had called the ambulance and it arrived two hours later when she was already dead, she said.

“In Dlamini’s case, why tell the family an ambulance is on its way when it’s not? Even worse, lie about it. Since when do ambulances get stuck in traffic with their sirens on?

“I don’t know whether there’s a need for more resources in the public sector or if this is because employees are just incompetent.” Simon Singo, another Pretoria News reader, found it very sad that people still died waiting for ambulances and the lame excuses to cover laziness and idleness among public servants.

“An ambulance gets stuck in traffic to fetch a patient but it will never get stuck in traffic while rushing to McDonald’s for lunch.

“But when it’s time to work, they are stuck. Public service in this country is pathetic. Those public servants are selfish, lazy and have this ‘I don’t care’ attitude,” he said.

He shared Bloom’s view that a probe be launched and those responsible fired, including the call centre staff. “We pay them. They must serve us. I don’t know if it’s affirmative action or a culture of entitlement.”

Pretoria News


Acting top cop fingered in financial scandal

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The SAPS has landed itself in another financial crisis – this time over R35 million spent on a fleet of luxury cars.

 

The Star can reveal exclusively on Wednesday that a secret report is to be handed to the joint standing committee on intelligence alleging that acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi authorised the taking of funds from the controversial Secret Services Account (SSA) for operational expenditure in direct contravention of the Secret Service Act 56 of 1978.

This was to ensure that budgeted funds were spent, even though not in the way they were intended.

According to the report, this was done after a decline in the operational spending patterns of crime intelligence due to infighting within the SAPS.

Crime intelligence had been allocated R98 million for expenditure and had spent about R60m over the first three quarters of the 2011/2012 financial year. Then, in the last quarter, about R35m was spent. “This is evident that they just wanted to spend the budget,” the report reads.

The money, the report indicates, was used to buy vehicles for other police units, including Mkhwanazi’s erstwhile command, the police’s notorious amaBarette or Tactical Response Team.

The fund, which was controlled by suspended crime intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, has been in the news recently after revelations that Mdluli allegedly plundered it to pay his wife, girlfriends and relatives’ salaries as police informants, give them cars and accommodate them in safe houses – to the tune of millions of rand.

On Wednesday, Mdluli lost his bid to have his suspension lifted, as President Jacob Zuma was poised to fire Mkhwanazi’s predecessor, General Bheki Cele, for his role in the Roux Shabangu lease scandal that cost the police R1.6 billion over the leasing of buildings.

 

The Star understands that the acting divisional commissioner of crime intelligence, Fannie Masemola, went on a spending spree, acquiring 140 luxury vehicles, among them BMW X3s, Audi Q5s, the latest Jeep SRTs and the latest BMW 320 models.

The Star has seen documentary proof of the transfer of at least five luxury vehicles from crime intelligence to Operational Response Services between January and February. The vehicles were a Mercedes-Benz ML 350 CDI, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mercedes-Benz C300 and a Lexus 350 RXI.

The top-secret document, which will be presented to the parliamentary committee, claims: “The allocations for capital expenditures and goods and services for the financial year were adjusted to ensure the Division: Crime Intelligence goes on a spending spree to show National Treasury, the Auditor-General and the joint standing committee on intelligence that they had proper budgetary measures in place. This is a farce, as it was actually (the) contrary.

“The operational budget for goods and services could not be utilised and the current acting management actually committed a serious financial misconduct by shifting vast sums of money to the capital expenditure.”

Last night, DA spokeswoman Dianne Kohler Barnard said the report presented a case of serious mismanagement. She said each division from the SAPS had its own budget, and the distribution of vehicles to other units out of the SSA budget was not just irregular, but wrong.

Kohler Barnard was taken aback when she learnt that 140 luxury vehicles had been bought out of the SSA’s budget.

“This massive multibillion-rand budget allocated to crime intelligence is mismanaged. We have stations without electricity and water, and people are wasting money on luxury vehicles.”

The report continues: “Out of this capital expenditure of R98 million, R81 million was blasted on vehicles. The sad part is that they spent R35 million in the last quarter. This is evident that they just wanted to spend the budget.”

When The Star sent enquiries to Mkhwanazi’s spokesman, Brigadier Lindela Mashigo, he acknowledged that he had received it but failed to respond, saying police management was in meetings.

Meanwhile, Parliament’s police oversight committee has called on Mkhwanazi to explain the Mdluli saga at a meeting next week.

 

The Star


Cele spokesman: Reports might be accurate

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The presidency declined to comment on Thursday on reports that suspended Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele has been fired.

“We have no comment on the matter at this stage,” presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said.

Cele’s spokesman Vuyo Mkhize and his lawyer Vincent Maleka were not immediately available to confirm or deny the reports.

The Star reported that Cele was informed of his axing on Wednesday. He was told to vacate his office, and that his replacement was due to report for duty on July 1.

The Times reported that Cele was told about the decision on Tuesday.

Both reports were based on unnamed sources.

The Times source said Cele would fight the dismissal “tooth and nail”.

“The general is not going to roll over and die. He is not that kind of man. He is strong. Stronger than this and [he] will fight all the way,” the source said.

Mkhize told SABC radio news on Thursday that he saw Cele at lunch on Wednesday and said no decision had been conveyed to Cele.

He said that when similar things had previously come out in the media, they often turned out to be correct, so the reports might be accurate.

On Wednesday night Maharaj said President Jacob Zuma would make his decision on Cele known when he was “ready”.

Last month, a board of inquiry appointed by Zuma found Cele unfit to hold office and recommended he be fired. He has been suspended since last year.

The inquiry followed a finding in July by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela that Cele’s involvement in deals to acquire police office space was “improper, unlawful and amounted to maladministration”.

Madonsela concluded that while Cele had not signed the final lease, he had initiated negotiations with property tycoon Roux Shabangu, and had seemed determined to secure the leases despite warnings against them.

The Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday that Zuma must announce whether he has fired Cele.

“President Zuma must tell the police and the public whether he has indeed sacked Cele,” said DA spokeswoman on police, Dianne Kohler-Barnard.

“The ongoing uncertainty about the situation in the top brass of the (SA Police Service) undermines police morale, public confidence in the police and the fight against crime,” she said. – Sapa

DJ Euphonik due in court for allegedly ‘assaulting’ ex-girlfriend

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5FM and club deejay Euphonik has handed himself over to the police following three criminal charges laid against him by his ex-girlfriend – YFM and SABC1 Live presenter Bonang Matheba

He is due to appear in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court today.

DJ Euphonik, real name Themba Nkosi, was released on bail of R3,000 when he presented himself to the police yesterday afternoon in the company of his lawyer at Bramley police station.

He is facing three charges – assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, domestic violence and malicious damage to property.

Whilst the other two charges belong to common law, the domestic violence charge falls under the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998.

Sowetan’s sister newspaper, Sunday World, broke the story on Sunday that the former lovebirds engaged in a domestic tiff which led to Matheba laying criminal charges and obtaining a protection order against her former beau.

However, Euphonik has strongly contested the allegations that he had physically abused Matheba. On Sunday, he released a statement that condemned domestic violence against women.

“I was shocked to see the allegations of assault levelled against me in the tabloids. Those allegations are not true and I am seeking legal advice to clear my name,” Euphonik said in a statement

“I will take the matter to court if necessary. Women abuse is a serious crime and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

The police have confirmed that Euphonik has been released on bail after presenting himself to the police.

“He was not arrested as such for he handed himself over to the police in the presence of his lawyer. He was then taken to the prosecutor that handles such matters and was released on bail of R3,000 with instruction to appear in court tomorrow,” police spokesman Tshisikhawe Ndou said yesterday.

Asked for comment, Matheba’s spokesman Simphiwe Majola said: “We cannot comment on this matter anymore since it is pending before courts”.

 

‘Six million LinkedIn passwords stolen’

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London – Around six million users of the social networking site LinkedIn have had their accounts hacked and their passwords stolen, according to technology experts.

The website, popular with businessmen and women, is investigating claims that a file containing 6.5 million encrypted passwords was published on a Russian hackers’ web forum.

Experts are now advising users to change their passwords on LinkedIn and other websites for which they use the same password. They also warn that the stolen passwords are probably already in the hands of criminals if the security breach is genuine.

LinkedIn has more than 160 million users in 200 countries and nine million in the UK.

Graham Cluley, of internet security firm Sophos, said he believed the breach was genuine and warned that the passwords were now likely to be in the hands of criminals.

He added: ‘We’ve confirmed there are LinkedIn passwords in the data. We did this by searching through the data for passwords that we at Sophos use only on LinkedIn. We found those passwords in the data. We also saw that hundreds of the passwords contain the word Linkedin.

‘Our advice is to change your LinkedIn password. And if you use the same password on other accounts, change it there too.’

Per Thorsheim, the internet security expert who first raised the alarm, said that the number of users who may have had their passwords stolen is likely to be around 6.5 million.

The news comes after LinkedIn was forced to change its policies after it was accused of a privacy breach discovered by web security researchers.

The problem concerned a mobile app which sent unencrypted calendar entries, such as phone numbers and passwords for conference calls, to LinkedIn servers without the users’ knowledge.

On Tuesday a hacker with the username ‘dwdm’ appealed for help on the Russian hackers’ forum to decrypt the files and access the original passwords.

By yesterday morning, hackers claimed to have revealed hundreds of thousands of passwords.

Although LinkedIn does not contain a wealth of personal data like other social networking sites such as Facebook, there is a risk that confidential information could be stolen.

There is also a risk that LinkedIn members who use the same password for other websites could be at risk of having other personal data stolen, including bank details.

A spokesman for LinkedIn said: ‘Our team continues to investigate, but at this time we’re still unable to confirm that any security breach has occurred.’ – Daily Mail


ANC won’t endorse land grab – Gwede

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The ANC tried to soothe farmers on Wednesday after a call by its youth league for the constitution to be changed to allow land to be expropriated without compensation and a warning that Zimbabwe-style land invasions loomed.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party wouldn’t endorse a land grab, as ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola said would happen unless whites surrendered their land.

“It is not the ANC policy to expropriate land without compensation, and personally I don’t think it will work,” said Mantashe.

He was speaking after a meeting in Joburg on Wednesday between the ANC and commercial and emerging farmers.

Mantashe said the ANC would discuss land redistribution with the youth league so that its concerns could be addressed at the ruling party’s national policy conference at the end of the month. “It will not be helpful to engage in violent polemics (with the ANCYL) in the run-up to the policy conference. The conference will address land reform in detail,” Mantashe said.

He said the party was discussing how to ensure food security with established and emerging farmers .

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, among others, has singled out the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach as the biggest hindrance to achieving the land reform target of transferring 30 percent of agricultural land to black farmers by 2014.

It has proposed in its Green Paper on Land Reform to create an office of a land valuer-general to determine a fair price for land acquisitions.

Lamola warned white South Africans on Tuesday that “whites must voluntarily give up their land if they don’t want to see young black people flooding their farms”.

AfriForum’s legal representative, Willie Spies, said Lamola’s comments amounted to hate speech.

“Lamola specifically referred to, among others, ‘the Van Tonders and the Van der Merwes on farms’ and warned that their safety cannot be guaranteed,” the organisation said.

Spies said AfriForum intended to lay charges against Lamola at both the Equality Court and with police.

Youth league spokeswoman Magdalene Moonsamy said it would not be intimidated and was unapologetic about land reform. “We re-affirm the statement made by the deputy president of the youth league that those who continue to hold land which was illegally and immorally taken away from the indigenous people of South Africa must voluntarily co-operate with the ANC-led government to ensure swift and equitable redistribution of such land to the masses of our people,” she said.

Moonsamy said: “The call of the ANCYL, members of the ANC, the trade unions and South Africans in general for the speedy return of our land and our birth right has never, today, nor will it ever, require approval from unpatriotic white farmers and landowners.”

She added that if necessary “we are prepared to fight with all that we have for that which our people should have”.

She said the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle had failed the people of SA because of greed and at the expense of millions of landless people.

The DA called on the government to reject the youth league’s call.

DA spokesman on rural development and land reform Athol Trollip said any assault on land rights would compromise national food security and job creation.

Political Bureau


Fury after cop shot dead

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A huge manhunt is under way for two armed men who shot and killed an off-duty Lyttelton police officer.

Sergeant Bruwer Smit, known to family, friends and colleagues as “Smittie”, died on Tuesday afternoon while his son Jean-dre, 10, looked on in horror.

Smit was described as a dedicated, passionate and hard-working police officer by co-workers.

Frans Esterhuyse, chairman of the CPF Sector 3, said he met Smit about five years ago when he was part of the trio task team assigned by the Lyttelton police station to focus on armed robberies, hijackings and housebreaking in Sector 3.

“He was a good man, a born cop, and made a huge impact in the community and showed true dedication. We presented him with an award of appreciation in 2010 to thank him for his hard work,” he said.

Esterhuyse said he last spoke to Smit last Thursday. “He said he was going for a bike ride. He was very excited and could not wait to go.”

On Tuesday, Smit – a keen mountain biker – was enjoying a ride with his son near the Zandfontein cemetery on the Mabopane Highway west of Pretoria when he was gunned down.

Police spokeswoman Captain Agnes Huma said he was shot in the neck and died at the scene.

She said the two armed men had emerged from bushes, overpowered Smit and his son, removed Smit’s shoes, tied Jean-dre up with the shoelaces and shot Smit.

“The suspects took his bicycle, money and cellphone and disappeared into the bushes,” said Huma.

Jean-dre freed himself and ran to the main road for help.

Huma said the person who stopped to help the child had seen the suspects passing but did not think much about it. He contacted the police, who arrived quickly.

“We are not sure if he was shot with his own service pistol but we are investigating the possibility,” Huma added.

Colonel Neels Kleinhans, stationed at the SAPS vehicle safeguarding section, said he was Smit’s former immediate commander from 2009 while he was on the trio task team.

Kleinhans said he worked closely with Smit for three years and was shocked when he heard the news.

“He was an exceptional police officer, the type of man you could phone any time of the day or night for help. He always had his pistol by his side. I don’t know what went wrong on Tuesday,” he said.

Twitter was abuzz with messages of shock and condolences on Wednesday.

Sally de Beer tweeted: “RIP Sergeant Smit, sympathy to his family and colleagues.”

SAPoliceService tweeted: “Condolences to family, colleagues and friends. Senseless killing. This must stop.”

Zinhle Ngubane tweeted: “It sickens me to see the public kill the people who are supposed to protect them. RIP to all the fallen heroes.”

 

Provincial duty officer Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said the manhunt was still on. He said Jean-dre was being treated for shock and was undergoing counselling from SAPS counsellors.

 

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union said it was enraged by the brutal killing.

 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hercules police station on 012 377 4100, 012 377 0320, crime stop on 08600 10111 or Lt Col Makhunufane on 082 319 9737.

Pretoria News


‘Zuma axes Bheki Cele’

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National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele will soon – possibly as early as Thursday –leave the service in disgrace.

Three police sources have confirmed to Independent Newspapers that Cele was informed of his imminent axing on Wednesday, but that the official announcement – which was supposed to have taken place on Wednesday – had been postponed at the eleventh hour.

The sources confirmed that Cele had been instructed to vacate his office and that his replacement was due to report for duty on July 1.

President Jacob Zuma may have delayed the announcement following fresh developments in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday afternoon in which now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t crime intelligence boss, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, was barred from performing any duties in the police.

An announcement of Cele’s dismissal on the same day would have come as a severe body blow to an already punch-drunk police service reeling under claims of political interference in internal police investigations, ongoing turf wars and allegations of a spillover into the police of party political manoeuvring in the run-up to the ANC’s elective conference in December.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Wednesday night: “All I can say is that the president will make known his decision when he is ready to do so.”

A board of inquiry appointed by Zuma to determine whether Cele was fit to hold office recommended last month that he be fired. It found that, in pushing for the police and public works departments to lease the overpriced buildings of businessman Roux Shabangu, Cele had acted “dishonestly” and “with an undeclared conflict of interest”.

“(T)he board is duty bound to recommend that the president … orders his removal from office. The evidence proved abundantly that there was a questionable relationship between (Cele) and Shabangu … and between Shabangu and the officials within the Department of Public Works, on the other hand, as well as between (Cele) and some members of the SAPS,” chairman Judge Jake Moloi concluded.

This followed similar findings by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela last year. Her investigation concluded that Cele’s involvement in the leasing scandal was “improper, unlawful” and amounted to “maladministration”, prompting widespread calls for the general’s head to roll. But Cele was suspended, pending the outcome of the board of inquiry.

Cele could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night. Eyewitness News reported on Thursday morning that Cele said he had not heard from Zuma, nor had he heard any rumours that he had been fired.

There has been mounting speculation in recent weeks that Zuma may replace Cele with advocate Nathi Nhleko, currently the director-general in the Department of Labour and an old colleague of Zuma’s.

However, Maharaj last week dismissed these rumours.

Two police sources confirmed on Wednesday night that Nhleko had already undergone a preliminary vetting process, but a third suggested that Zuma had had a last-minute change of heart and was now considering a woman for the position.

Acting police chief Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is perceived in some quarters as being too independently minded to be given the job on a permanent basis. This view has gained currency after Mkhwanazi bucked the trend by moving against Mdluli. –

Political Bureau

POLICE RELENTLESS EFFORTS TO STABILIZE MOROLENG KANANA PUBLIC VIOLENCE

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BY Obakeng Maje

Situation is still tense at  Moruleng near Rustenburg, where about 32 villages are involved in protest action.

These protests started again last night where protestors barricaded roads bringing traffic to a standstill. Consequently teachers could not reach schools and schools were closed for the day and workers were also affected. Especially  mine workers travelling from the surrounding places.

 

According to the information received at the time of release there are 36 people arrested in total, Moroleng accounts for 19 and Kanana 17 arrests made.

Amongst the people arrested it’s the two suspects who are facing charges of arson after one person was seen burning a business shop owned by an employee of Bakgatla tribal Authority.

“The other suspect was also charged with arson after he set alight a vehicle. All those arrested in Kanana were charged for public violence, while the charges of those in Moroleng differed” Brigadier Ngubane.

The charges ranged from public violence, malicious damage to property and Arson.

 

The major incidents that took place earlier this morning during the protest include the burning of a buss belonging to Bajanala Bus Company.

 

It is alleged that the bus driver was stopped, taken out of the bus assaulted before the bus was set alit, one suspect arrested was arrested in the incident. Second one is malicious damage and petrol bombing of  the house of the councilor at Moses Kotane Local Municipality, one suspect arrested on this incident.

Thirdly two trucks in Kanana were stoned and badly damaged.

 

The police continue making relentless efforts to instill order in the affected areas, appealing to the community to reach common ground and find better ways of expressing their frustration. Public violence and damage to property will never be the answer.