Third force ‘undoubtedly’ behind deadly Tembisa protest, says official
Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile and Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell met with Tembisa community leaders at the local police station on Wednesday morning.
The meeting comes amid the violent protests in the area, which claimed the lives of four people and caused damage to infrastructure running into millions of rands.
Residents took to the streets, barricading roads and torching the customer contact centre, along with 31 vehicles belonging to the municipality.
The metro’s Community Safety MMC Letlhogonolo Moseki said there was no justification for the torching of property and crucial infrastructure.
“How do you justify torching 31 vehicles of the municipality and the entire CCC? As we speak right now, the people of Tembisa don’t have a customer care centre and we have got millions of rands to recover.”
Moseki said there’s undoubtedly a third, criminal force behind the violence.
“We are of the view of that this whole thing has been hijacked by criminals, which is now clouding the genuine issues of the people of Tembisa and as a result we are clamping down on all of those criminal activities.”
Moseki said while investigations were still underway, a political element cannot be ruled out.
“We have our investigators on the ground, and once that particular call has been concluded we will then be able to come out…and we are not going to hide it. If there is a political element to it we will even go as far as exposing those who are responsible.”
The ANC previously denied fueling the violence.
Meanwhile, police watchdog Ipid has announced it is probing the death of one of the four victims, who was allegedly shot by police on Monday.
No arrests linked to the public violence have been made so far.
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