Midvaal mayor, ANC member arrested for assault
Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi and
an African National Congress (ANC) member have both been released on bail
following an altercation at an Arbor Day event in Savannah City.
Both men laid counter assault charges against each other on Saturday and were eventually released on R500 bail each.
The ANC's Sedibeng spokesperson Boniface Mazilazila says Baloyi attacked a resident after they raised issues of service delivery.
“The executive mayor organised the event as a Democratic Alliance electioneering program which turned sour when members of the community rejected the political nature of the event, as the DA members wanted the event to be projected as a political delivery machinery of the ruling party in Midvaal.”
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According to the DA, the event started peacefully but when the mayor was about to address the community a group of ANC members disrupted the event.
“The mayor was in Savannah City to plant some trees. In the midst of the mayor speech a group of ANC supporters arrived, they were shouting and trying to disrupt the event. The did disrupt the event it would appear that their issues are related to the lack of electricity and an RDP unit, the cause of which is no movement from the department of energy which is a national department which the ANC controls,” says the DA’s chief whip in Gauteng, Mike Moriarty.
Moriarty says the ANC members should direct their anger to the minister of energy and not the mayor of Midvaal.
“If I was in their situation I would be extraordinary angry too but I would direct my anger at the Minister of Energy which is where the problem lays and not the mayor of the Midvaal. Their anger was misplaced, from our point of view. If there was any political grandstanding it came from the ANC.”
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Both men are expected to appear at the Vereenging Magistrate’s court on Monday.