Outrage over arson
Protesters put Bathurst residents under siege
Six houses and at least two cars were burned in arson attacks and nine people were injured as political violence escalated in Nolukhanyo, Bathurst, earlier this week.
There was a huge outpouring of sympathy for the people who had lost homes and possessions, and outrage directed towards the perpetrators on Talk of the Town’s Facebook group.
One of the people affected by the violence was Bathurst resident and policeman’s wife Christelle Denston, who said her children were traumatised by an attack on her house.
“Last night my house was targeted as well,” Denston wrote. “The ANC people that came yesterday [Sunday] afternoon to Bathurst, I hope you happy you started it again, because it was quiet. You provoked these people.
“I had kids in my house – a seven-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. You are not people you are animals. My daughter is traumatised. What do you want to achieve? Hurting people – people that work very hard to build a house to make a living, then you come and destroy it! You are disgusting, you are a disgrace to mankind. “My husband is a police officer. He protects and serves the community. If your lives are in danger he protects [you],” she said.
Denston said her daughter was crying and screaming and had tried to jump out of the window to get away from the intruders.
Well-wishers told Denston she should take her daughter for trauma counselling, and she said she would.
The arson attacks came after a motorcade of ANC members travelled through Nolukhanyo on Sunday at about 5pm, calling on people not to vote for the EFF.
According to a provincial SAPS report, groups of community members started throwing stones at vehicles and attacked other members of the community. At the same time, reports were received of a house that was set alight. A short while later three more reports were received of homes being burnt in separate locations. Reports of vehicles that were also apparently burnt were received.
Several cases including arson, malicious damage to property and assault have been opened and are under investigation. Five suspects, aged between 20 and 55, have been arrested and more arrests are imminent, the SAPS statement said. The suspects were due to appear in the Port Alfred magistrate’s court this week.
The latest violence follows weeks of sporadic road blockades across the R67 as protesters from Nolukhanyo demanded Ndlambe mayor Phindile Faxi attend to their grievances about service delivery and remove Ward 5 councillor Andile Marasi.
After hours-long negotiations with the protesters at previous road blockades, public order police eventually resorted to using teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd and remove burning tyres and debris on the road.
Fifty protesters were arrested on public violence charges after a blockade in January. Police said at the time that a car belonging to an ANC member had been stoned and a man had also been assaulted.
Policeman Luzean Hector also commented on TotT’s facebook group, expressing anger at “cowards hiding behind the toyi toyi,” attacking his home while he was on duty escorting an ambulance to help seriously injured people.
“If you have something personal against me, let’s sort it out man-to-man, don’t hide behind the masses,” Hector wrote.
He said among the houses burnt down were an ex-councillor’s house, including his Mercedes-Benz parked in the driveway, the municipal manager’s house and a municipal bakkie, and three other ANC member’s houses.
“Nine people were seriously injured,” he said.
Zelda Neethling commented that a clinic sister’s house and car was burnt, apparently because a councillor ran to her home to seek safety.
Hector said Eastern Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, visited his house in Bathurst on Monday.
Ntshinga strongly condemned the acts of arson. “We cannot allow people to burn or torch other peoples’ houses or property despite any disagreements or reasons. The 72-hour activation plan has been implemented to investigate, track, arrest and bring to justice those suspected and responsible for such violent acts within this community,” she said on Tuesday.