Cops nab protesters

least 18 people were arrested in connection with the violence that erupted in Jouberton near Klerksdorp, North West police said yesterday.

Spokesperson Colonel Adele Myburgh said the group, aged between 17 and 37, were arrested on Monday, following community protests.

“During the protest, an unconfirmed number of members of the community, comprising mainly of youth, barricaded roads and looted foreign national tuckshops in Jouberton and Alabama,” she said.

They were expected to appear in the Klerksdorp Magistrate’s Court today, on a charge of public violence.

The police were maintaining their presence in the area where some of the roads were still barricaded. Meanwhile, Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) denied it was stoking the protest.

The regional election convenor in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality, Maruping Madibo, said F4SD was a law-abiding organisation which condemns looting, violence and the destruction of property.

“F4SD believe in the power of ‘X’, not unruly behaviours and ignorance of the law,” he said, distancing the organisation from a message circulating on social media calling on residents to join the protest, burn the new clinic and not to allow taxis to operate.

On Facebook, Thabang CT Matlokwe posted on Ditaba Tsa Joubertina (Jouberton

News) that Forum For Service Delivery was sorry for the looting of some shops, adding that looting was not part of its “mandate”.

The message said the N12 highway must be blocked, in a push for the municipal manager to resign.

Maruping said the message was circulated by the Forum For Service Delivery, and not Forum 4 Service Delivery.