Calm restored to Pretoria CBD, for now
Calm has been restored to the Pretoria CBD on Wednesday morning with law enforcement agencies and the city council now starting to calculate the damage caused by violent protests.
Protests flared up in various parts of Tshwane on Monday after the ANC announced former cabinet minister, Thoko Didiza as their preferred mayoral candidate for the upcoming elections.
Tshwane Metro police's Console Tleane confirmed that they have started to estimate the damage.
"By yesterday we had recorded 20 buses that were torched while 8 light motor vehicles and 5 trucks were torched," he told Jacaranda FM news.
Shacks and buildings in and around the CBD were also torched while various shops in Pretoria, Atteridgeville and Mabopane have been looted.
"There were incidents where businesses had to close their doors out of fears of looting and this might have an economic impact on the area," Tleane added.
Tleane added that police have been deployed to the hotspots and have seemingly taken control of the situation.
"We are monitoring the entire city at the moment as we can't concentrate only on the hot spots," he said.
