TWEET OF THE WEEK

Burning issues of lawlessness

The Durban office of the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) department is, or was, a dangerous place to be. It was burnt to the ground this past week by protesters believed to be “informal settlement dwellers and land invaders” protesting against what Cogta spokesperson Lennox Mabaso called a government “crackdown on lawlessness”. The office had been attacked a few days previously, when protesters threw petrol bombs at it; they also stoned cars on nearby roads. Late last year the same office was robbed by gunmen who took televisions and computers, as well as stealing a Cogta employee’s car. That’s one way to get the state’s attention.

The naked truth is misconstrued

A former employee of the Unisa Centre for Early Childhood Education, one Gugu Ncube, was arrested after she staged a naked (or nearly naked) protest at the Union Buildings. She held up a poster that read: “The police are used to intimidate, threaten and harass me. I was raped and sexually harassed. I am a victim of sexual harassment at Unisa. They claim that I resigned, I never resigned. They chased me away from work because I refused to sleep with my manager.” Unisa said in a statement that Ncube had “misconstrued” the matter. There was an outpouring of sympathy for Ncube on social media after a video of her being removed by police went viral.