Arrests after arson protest at municipal offices

The Ditsobotla local municipality in North West is cleaning up offices after a portion of its building was set alight and the mayor held hostage, the municipality said yesterday.

“We are removing rubble and renovating offices,” said municipal spokesperson Pius Batsile.

He said some of the municipal workers had returned to work. They were expecting all workers to be back on Monday.

A group of irate residents from ward 3 in Boikhutso, also known as Phola, near Lichtenburg, held mayor Daniel Buthelezi hostage and torched a portion of the municipal building on May 24.

The mayor was not hurt during the incident.

The protesters wanted inclusion and prioritisation in the municipality’s integrated development plan (IDP) and wanted some projects to be brought forward to the 2017-18 financial year instead of being allocated to financial year 2018-19.

North West police arrested 32 people on charges ranging from kidnapping and arson, to attempted murder. Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Amanda Funani said the suspects appeared in the Lichtenburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and their case was postponed to Monday. The provincial chairperson of South African Local Government Association in North West, Fetsang Mokati, condemned the burning of municipal buildings.

“I will be failing in my responsibilities, as the chairperson of Salga in the province, if I do not flag this concern.”

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the burning of municipal buildings or community property in our municipalities.

“We are living in a democratic country, everyone has a constitutional right to protest, but I do not think there is a right to destroy and hurt others,” she said at the council meeting of Bojanala Platinum district municipality, where she is the mayor.

Democracy does not mean you may hurt others.