President Zuma condemns burning of schools in Vuwani

“The entire nation is in shock over this occurrence,” Zuma told MPs.

“There is no grievance that can justify the destruction of property, especially schools which are meant to help the next generation of Vuwani to defeat poverty, inequality and unemployment.”

Disgruntled Vuwani residents set alight the schools shortly after community leaders announced that they had lost a high court battle to have their area excluded from the new municipality in Malamulele, Limpopo.

Zuma said the ministers of cooperative governance, state security and police were in the area on Thursday to “deal with the situation”, although he did not specify what this meant, but hinted that the protests might have been hijacked by those with ulterior motives.

“In all the protests that have taken place, people normally close the roads and burn few thing. This really raises eyebrows very seriously. Seventeen schools is not a small thing,” Zuma said.

“I think we need to look deeper into this because there has been rumours that in many of these protests there is some motive behind [this] and some people take advantage of that. This is just shocking. If we are talking about a school or two, it’s one thing. Seventeen schools … it looks suspicious. The country is taking note of this.”

Zuma said law enforcement agencies had been instructed to find those responsible for the arson attacks and bring them to book. - ANA