Service Delivery Protests Watch: Angry residents burn vehicle, block N2
Police arrested three suspects for arson and public violence following service violent service delivery protests that broke out on the N2 in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
According to reports and videos posted on social media from the scene protestors set a municipal buildings and a state owned vehicle alight. They blocked the N2 at Izingolweni between Hibberdene and Port Shepstone with burning tyres and rubble from around 4.30am in the morning. A heavy police presence is now monitoring the area.
This video of a burning tractor that was set alight went viral on social media:
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Peggy Nkonyeni said police had arrested three suspects who had been charged with public violence and arson.
She said she had tasked law enforcement agencies to step-up their enforcement operations and ensure that law and order prevailed in Ezingolweni, following the anarchy that had followed the protest.
Nkonyeni condemned the destruction of infrastructure and malicious damage to property during the service delivery protest and called on police to act swiftly and arrest suspects. She commended police who by midday had arrested two suspects for public violence and one suspect for arson in connection to the burning of a municipal building and state vehicle.
”Public Order Police together with the South African Police Service’s Tactical Response Team have been deployed to the area and the situation is receiving urgent attention. We have directed police to act swiftly and so far, three people have been arrested for public violence and arson,” she said.
“The arrested suspects must face the full might of the law because we want to ensure that protesters who cause anarchy and vandalise state property deal with the consequences of their criminal actions. While community members have the freedom to exercise their constitutional rights to protest and display their dissatisfaction with lack of service delivery, they should do so within the confines of the law without resorting to criminality or endangering the lives of law-abiding citizens,” Nkonyeni said.
“The destruction of property will never be tolerated by the KwaZulu-Natal Government therefore, the law must take its course in dealing with the culprits.”
MEC Nkonyeni said a heavy police presence including Public Order Police, the SAPS Tactical Response Team and local police had been deployed to monitor the situation in the affected areas.
No comments: