Red Ants, ‘ANC’ mob halt EFF land grab
WHAT land grab?
This pretty much sums up the police response to a tense fourto five-hour standoff between illegal land occupiers and about 100 members of the notorious Red Ants security company.
Around noon on Friday, a crowd of EFF supporters arrived on vacant land in Swaneville on Johannesburg’s West Rand. They had marked off individual plots and announced that they planned to build homes there.
Shortly afterwards, the Red Ants arrived bearing sjamboks, sticks, crowbars and shields.
The 150 or so EFF supporters sang and stood their ground.
A handful of policemen were spotted as the Red Ants started moving in on them.
Next thing, rubber bullets were fired into the crowd.
At least one woman was injured. Rose Mangathe was struck on the ankle by a rubber bullet. She was seen collapsing near a teargas canister released into crowd.
EFF West Rand regional secretary Itani Mukwevho said “the Red Ants’ behaviour was not helping anything” and no matter what the Red Ants or the police did, “we will take this land”.
“They want a place to stay and we’ve identified this place. It all forms part of the EFF’s programme to take unoccupied land and give it to the people,” Mukwevho said.
Gauteng provincial police spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said yes- terday: “It is alleged that there was an altercation between Red Ants and municipal workers who were fixing the road to Swaneville.
“The situation at this stage is calm and the alleged land invasion hasn’t taken place.”
She said police were monitoring the situation but could not confirm if anyone had been arrested.
Some of the Red Ants taunted the crowd, daring them to come forward.
Then a group charged at the EFF supporters and assaulted men and women with sticks and sjamboks.
Police by now were standing on the sidelines, watching.
Later on, another group, some dressed in ANC colours, swooped on the EFF crowd and also assaulted them with sticks and sjamboks.
Swaneville resident Beeka Chaka, who lives opposite the piece of land the EFF supporters tried to occupy, said he had hoped a shopping centre would be built on that land.
“The problem is, most of these people come from somewhere else. They’re not part of the community, but they want to come and live here.
“I want them to develop the land like the council promised,” Chaka said.
They’re not part of the community, but they want to come and live here