BY REGINALD KANYANE

THE ANC in Dr Kenneth Kaunda district in North West said they condemned the actions of unruly individuals who took advantage of a peaceful march organised by Tlokwe residents on Friday.

Dr Kenneth Kaunda district regional chairperson, Itumeleng Mosala said they watched the history repeated itself when a group of unruly individuals ran on the rampage, trashing the streets in throughout the city under the pretext of demonstrating against the merger with Ventersdorp municipality.
“We must remember that not so long ago when Tlokwe community desired the apartheid name Potchefstroom to be changed to Tlokwe, the Democratic Alliance at the time, rented a crowd of loitering juveniles and passed them on as the voice of the people of Tlokwe in an attempt to frustrate the realisation of the wishes of the people,” he said.

Mosala said the DA was doing exactly what is known for. “It has organized surrogates to do its dirty work. We are aware of a media statement that preceded this march issued by a Tlokwe DA councilor, Hans Jurie Moolman wherein he intimated that they support the demonstration even if they do not support the violence. This makes one to wonder why Moolman was prompted to mention violence even before the march had begun,” he said.
According to Masala, the DA lives with the illusion that it is capable of governing Tlokwe. He said it cannot do so when there is unity among the people of Tlokwe and it uses surrogates to create division among the people.
“DA should feel shameful of itself for encouraging and preventing the ordinary people who have nothing, but only depend on waking every morning to go and work so as to be able to put bread on the table.

“They neither care about the education of the black child. The grades 12’s are currently preparing for exams and yet unprincipled politicians will not care to sacrifice their education for their selfish interests,” Mosala said.

However the DA in the province refutes the claims from the ANC and said the protests were influenced by the decision of amalgamation which left people discontented.

“We condemn the looting of buildings and violence during protests that escalated over the weekend. The vandalism and arson of the Venterdorp local municipal buildings on Friday, was a horrible result of the ANC government’s neglect and contempt for resident’s views which are opposed to the merger of Tlokwe and Ventersdorp municipalities,” Juanita Terblanche said.

She said the ANC government and the Demarcation Board have long given up in listening to Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp residents who clearly fear the amalgamation, but have no say in this critical decision.

“Participatory democracy and the values of people-centred government have been destroyed by the ANC in the North West. We are concerned that the Tlokwe and Ventersdorp municipality merger shows signs of mimicking the Khutsong and Matateile cross-border protests, where the government only really listened to grievances after residents had to turn violent to stop it. Today the ANC forces communities to turn violent before government listens,” Terblanche said.

The DA is trying to fight the matter in court and their case will be heard before the High Court in Pretoria on September 29 this year.

North West police said no one has been arrested in protests in Ventersdorp on Friday.

Police spokesperson, col Sabata Mokgwabone said: “No one has been arrested so far, but police investigations continue.”

The community allegedly reduced the municipality offices to ashes in protest and in Potchefstroom; the car belonging to SABC was pelted with stones by unruly individuals.

-TDN

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