Protesters burn school and post office
A SCHOOL building, a post office and department of water affairs offices have been set alight by service delivery protesters in the Tshitale area, south of Louis Trichardt.
Limpopo police spokesman Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo told Sowetan yesterday that it was not yet clear what time Vari Primary School was set alight.
“We don’t know if the school and the water affairs buildings were torched on Sunday night or in the early hours of Monday morning,” Mojapelo said.
“However, the post office was burnt in the morning.
“We have not arrested anyone for all those incidents where all the properties were partly damaged.”
Residents are demanding the construction of a new tarred road and have escalated their protest by attacking government property.
Mojapelo said they have deployed various units from the police to ensure that there was calm in the area.
“These protesters are using clandestine methods.
“We have opened cases of public violence and arson and will continue monitoring the area until the situation gets back to normal,” he said.
Mojapelo said part of the N1 freeway, north of Makhado, was also barricaded by the same protesters who pelted vehicles with stones. However, police managed to disperse the crowd.
He said the gravel roads leading to Mashamba, Tshitale-Muila and Lambani-Muila have been blockaded and are not accessible.
Limpopo department of education spokesman Naledzani Rasila said they were concerned about communities in the province who, whenever they are angry about something, disrupt learning and resort to vandalising property.
“First they stopped learners from going to school. People should learn from previous experiences such as when many schools in Limpopo were burnt down.
“When we resumed education after the situation calmed down, we found ourselves having more challenges in the form of infrastructure.
“We need to refrain from vandalising property,” Rasila said.
Rasila said he hoped law enforcement agencies will play their part and arrest those responsible.
“We will assess the situation to evaluate the damage and to see what to do to assist our learners.”
Last week, pupils from more than 30 schools in the province were prevented from attending classes due to a shutdown of the Tshitale area.
Last year, schooling was severely affected after various schools were burnt down in Vuwani over demarcation protests. However, the area achieved a 100% matric pass rate.