On Thursday (August 29), the metro held their monthly council meeting, just three days after their offices were attacked.
It is no surprise that the central debates at the meeting addressed the events that took place on Monday (August 26).
“I am saddened to inform this house that there was an unpleasant incident that took place in this very building,” said executive mayor Mondli Gungubele, during his address in council, on Thursday.
“Ex-combatants came to express their unhappiness with certain elements of the Demilitarisation Programme.
“The unfortunate part of this is that they were unwilling to talk and vented their anger and frustrations by vandalising property, intimidating and assaulting some staff members and looting,” he added.
Mayoral spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, took the media on a tour of the vandalised metro offices on Tuesday (August 27).
“We did not know that they were coming, there was no warning and there was no memorandum,” Dlamini told the GCN.
However, protester and ex-struggle veteran Soza Khoza, informed the GCN that the protesters’ representatives had recently met with MMC for community safety, Mthuthuzile Siboza, to notify him that they plan to have a sit in at the Germiston Civic Centre on that Monday.
“I guess he thought we were crazy because he called the EMPD on us when we arrived,” said Khoza.
Gungubele informed council that over 100 of the protesters were arrested on that Monday for their unruly behaviour.
They are expected to appear at the Germiston Magistrates Court today (September 4).
“A full report will be presented during the next council meeting,” said Gungubele.
“This thing has been going on for so long, we are tired,” Khoza told the GCN.
The protesters claim that the mayor promised to give the ex-struggle veterans jobs and nothing has materialised.
“The MK Demilitarisation Programme has now been going on for years, originally aggressively driven by the previous Chief of Police, Robert McBride,” explained DA shadow MMC for community safety, Michele Clarke, during her address at council on Thursday.
“It is a mystery to me that Ekurhuleni has even taken on these matters, as this should be driven by National Government and not from a local platform,” she added.
“Hundreds of EMPD officers had surrounded the building and yet these people were able to access our offices.
“This is a true reflection of how badly our EMPD officers are managed and trained,” said Clarke.
“I suggest Monday was an indictment of this council, beginning with contempt shown for people trying to get promises kept and ending with a botched security operation,” said DA caucus leader Shelley Loe during her address at council on Thursday.
“I want to refer to the external security we employ in this metro at a price tag of R101-million per annum, who are clearly not capable of doing their jobs,” said Clarke.
“These security companies are supposed to protect our buildings and our staff, what happened on Monday?” she asked Gungubele.
“We remain committed to the successful implementation of the Demilitarisation Programme,” responded Gungubele.
“I must admit that I feel even more energised by the events of Monday to achieve this objective.
“We must see such incidents as a motivation for us to work even harder to better the lives of our people.
“In actual fact, we must view this as a call to this metro to come up with an urgent water-tight and implementable battle plan for job creation.
Our people are hungry and unemployed, they are pinning their hopes on us as government and we dare not fail them.”
Gungubele acknowledged that the metro has not moved at the speed expected.
“We have started a process of reviewing the entire programme to determine areas of concern and possible intervention with the ultimate objective of being able to speed up the process,” he said.
