3-26-2018 (NEWS 24)
South African police arrested about 30 people following violent protests in which demonstrators tried to occupy state-owned land and set a police station on fire.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at rioters who looted shops, vandalized buildings and threw stones at vehicles in the coastal town of Hermanus on Monday.
Local media outlet eNCA says protesters occupying vacant land demanded that the municipality supply them with water and electricity.
The unrest follows recent statements by President Cyril Ramaphosa that land transfers must be managed through dialogue and that there will be “no smash and grab” seizures.
Ramaphosa says South Africa must transfer some land from the country’s white minority to the black majority to address the legacy of apartheid, which ended in 1994.
A community member who has been part of the protests in Hermanus has blamed “drug addicts” for the violence that gripped the coastal town on Monday.
Speaking to News24 outside a gutted library, Masibulele Jimlongo said before starting the protest, the community had decided as a collective not to destroy property.
“We decided that we will never break a school and a library, but there are what we call amaparapara who break the library,” he said adding that the addicts were the ones responsible for the vandalism of property and were hiding behind the community’s genuine grievances.
South African police are asking for the public’s help in finding anyone responsible for the violence and vandalism. Not surprisingly, the police department is especially interested in arresting those involved with the torching of police stations in Hermanus.
“The killing of South African Police Service (SAPS) members and the torching of police stations is high treason and perpetrators of these crimes should receive the highest sanction possible from the judicial system,” the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Francois Beukman, said.
“The Portfolio Committee on Police is of the view that the attacks on the law enforcement fraternity and facilities in the last 72 hours should be dealt with by the SAPS swiftly and perpetrators should be arrested and face the full wrath of the law.”
