Various military veterans’ formations in Ekurhuleni apologised to Ekurhuleni’s executive mayor Mondli Gungubele on Wednesday for the violent protests and vandalism of municipal property that occurred at the Germiston Civic Centre on August 26.
In the meeting, leaders of the MKMVA, APLAMVA and SPU apologised to the mayor and made it clear that there was no justification for the incident which unfolded in broad daylight last week.
A group of people stormed the municipal offices demanding jobs on the grounds that they had been promised jobs by the municipality as part of the demilitarisation programme.
The group trashed offices and vandalised the building, as well as looting and stealing items in the process.
As a result over 100 people were arrested.
They appeared in court on Wednesday and the case was postponed to Thursday.
“We strongly condemn what happened on that day.
“No matter how frustrated our comrades are, such actions cannot be allowed.
“Indeed, people are hungry and looking for jobs, but this does not mean that we must break the law in the process,” said Lucky Mavuso of the MKMVA, describing the incident as “regrettable”.
His sentiments were shared by regional APLAMVA chairman Joseph Maleka who added that this must be viewed as a learning curve in terms of speeding up the demilitarisation programme.
“People are hungry.
“People are unemployed and this programme is their last hope.
“Its success is very important to the lives of many families,” he said.
Gungubele accepted the apology and committed the municipality to hosting an urgent follow-up meeting in 10 days to present a plan on how the demilitarisation process would be taken forward.
“I wish to thank the veterans for humbling themselves in such a manner.
“This move will reassure our communities about the stability of our area because now they will see that both council and the veterans have smoked the peace pipe especially after this incident, which was traumatic and violent in nature,” said Gungubele.
“We must admit that there have been problems with the demilitarisation process both from our side as council and the beneficiaries.
“However, we remain committed to ensuring that we deliver on this important programme, which will change the lives of many, especially these veterans who need to be reskilled and integrated into society.”
The demilitarisation programme was introduced by metro in the mid-2000s to help rehabilitate ex-combatants and empower them with the necessary skills to be employable.
Some of them have already been employed by the metro while various others will soon be undergoing counselling and others will be going for skills development at different institutions for further education and training.
