Johannesburg – A group of children set tyres alight in Bekkersdal township, outside Westonaria, on Monday morning.

A Sapa photographer on the scene estimated the children were between 6 and 13-years-old.

“There were between 30 to 50 of them burning tyres close to the entrance of the township. Police came and put out the fire. They are monitoring the group,” he said.

Earlier, police broke up groups of children in school uniform and ordered them to go to school. The group that set fire to the tyres was not wearing uniform.

Violent protests in Bekkersdal over the last few days had affected schooling. The provincial education department announced last week it had organised a special residential camp outside the area for matric pupils who started writing their final exams on Monday.

Protests suspended

On Sunday, community leader Thabang Wesi said they did not want to disrupt the children’s exams.

“We are suspending the protests and allowing schooling to continue and for the situation to return to normal in Bekkersdal,” said Wesi.

On Monday, police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said police maintained a strong visible presence in Bekkersdal as well as in the neighbouring Simunye township as the protests had spilled over to that area.

Several police officers, some on horseback, patrolled the streets.

At the entrance to Bekkersdal the metro police and SA Police Service conducted a roadblock, searching vehicles entering and leaving the township. Burnt tyres and rocks were lying in the streets.

The protesters wanted the removal of the mayor and better service delivery. They vandalised government properties and damaged police cars and a disaster management vehicle.

Group to meet MEC

Several people had been arrested and charged with public violence.

Wesi said community leaders met members of the tripartite alliance on Sunday and agreed to allow investigations launched by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Lechesa Tsenoli to proceed.

The group was expected to meet Gauteng human settlements and local government MEC Ntombi Mekgwe on 3 November.

When Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane visited the area on Sunday residents disrupted a church service she attended by throwing stones at the building. Mokonyane condemned their action and said she would not be intimated.

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– SAPA

By Obakeng Maje
Boitekong- The police arrested two suspects between the ages of 23 and 24 for allegedly robbing a business in Boitekong on Saturday, at about 04:00am.

Sergeant Kelebogile Moiloa said that the complainant alleged that she was asleep with the victim in a room attached to the shop when three suspects broke the padlock to gain entry.

“The suspects threatened them with a firearm before they stabbed the victim in his thigh. The suspects ransacked the shop and robbed them undisclosed amount of cash before they fled the scene on foot” Moiloa said.

The two suspects were arrested and one of them is still at large.
Investigation continues.-TDN
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Durban – Two 3-year-old cousins drowned in a flooded pit on Saturday night as their mothers cleared up after a storm hit large parts of the KwaZulu-Natal coast.

The tragedy occurred as parts of the eThekwini Municipality and the province’s South Coast were buffeted by rain and strong winds over the weekend.
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Johannesburg – A security guard was found beaten and tied up in a toilet on Monday morning at a construction site in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, paramedics said.

ER24 spokesperson Vanessa Jackson said the man was found by his employers.

“The man in his 30s is believed to have been approached by an unknown group of men sometime last night [Sunday] after which he was allegedly assaulted and tied up,” she said in a statement.

“He was then placed in the port-a-loo, unable to free himself.”

She said the man suffered some injuries as a result of the alleged beating and was cold after spending the night in the port-a-loo without much protection from the rain.

He was taken to a nearby hospital for further medical treatment.

KwaZulu-Natal police were unable to confirm on Monday morning if a case had been opened.
– SAPA

Johannesburg – The department of international relations would continue in its attempts to rectify the travel restrictions of former ANC freedom fighters in some international countries, it said on Monday.

 

“The SA government has repeatedly raised this matter with the US and will continue until this matter is sorted,” said international relations spokesperson Clayson Monyela.

 

The New Age reported earlier that ANC stalwart Tokyo Sexwale had been briefly detained by immigration control at the John F Kennedy International Airport in New York last week.

 

His lawyer Leslie Makhabela said: “They alleged he posed a threat to international security.”

 

Sexwale and many other anti-apartheid activists had been on a list of people banned from entering several countries since the apartheid era.

 

They were not removed after the country gained democracy in 1994.

 

Sexwale had since returned to the country.

 

EWN reported on Monday that Sexwale was embarrassed by the incident, and was also surprised, as there had been assurances 10 years ago that the names had been removed.

 

SAPA

North West Premier Thandi Modise has called on police management to investigate the alleged assault of an off-duty policeman by three of his colleagues based at Potchefstroom Police station on Saturday morning.

 

“The conduct of the police officers if indeed it is true is despicable and warrants for drastic steps measures to be taken against those involved as it tarnishes the image of the police. Police brutality is abhorred by the public and should be stamped out of the police service and those involved should be stripped of the dignified blue uniform,” said Premier Modise.

 

According to a media report by Taung Daily News, the incident occurred on Saturday morning around 01:30am.It is alleged that an off-duty police Constable Shepherd Malekanyo,27, was driving home in the early hours when he came across a man allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.

 

Malekanyo allegedly stopped and mediated between two lovers and assisted the 31 year-old woman to phone her younger sister to come and pick her up and upon her arrival at the scene of the off-duty policeman accompanied them to the police station to lay a charge of assault.

 

At the police station, the two lovers reportedly continued quarreling and wanted to lay charges of assault against each other. The off-duty Malekanyo stationed at Ikageng police station near Potchefstroom was allegedly manhandled when he tried to explain the situation to the three police officers.       

 

The officers allegedly followed Malekanyo’s vehicle in their state vehicle and ordered him back to the police station where they detained him for three hours in a holding cell for interfering with police duty but was later released without a formal charges being laid against him.

 

Malekanyo reportedly opened a case of assault and unlawful arrest upon his release.