After nearly two days of complete silence over the shootings that took place on Wednesday, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality has finally released a statement addressing the chaos Thursday evening.

Four workers were shot by heavily armed PPP Protection and Security guards, resulting in the death of two.

The verbatim statement reads:
Steve Tshwete Local Municipality has learnt with shock the disturbing shooting incidents which took place at the municipal premises, on Wednesday, 17 August 2022.

The incident happened after a group of people forcefully made their way into the municipal premises by removing the gate of the main entrance and started attacking the security personnel by throwing unidentified objects, fist fighting and discharging a firearm toward the security personnel.

The security personnel retreated to the guard house while using rubber bullets, then later resorted to the usage of live ammunition in self-defence in response to the live ammunition used by the group of people who forcefully entered the municipal premises after official working hours.

The incident led to the fatal shooting of some of these group of men who were violently attacking the security personnel, and we have learnt with sadness that the incident led to a loss of life, and out of our own internal investigation, the municipality learnt that some of the people who were involved are municipal employees and others are not municipal employees.

Steve Tshwete Local Municipality conveys its heartfelt and sincere condolences to the deceased family, and we wish those who have sustained injuries a speedy recovery, the municipality will send a delegation to the deceased to formally convey our condolences.

We must put it on record that the municipality does not condone any acts of violence used as a means to resolve any labour dispute including the damage to property and municipal infrastructure which is meant for the delivery of services.

Members of the community must take note that, the municipality remains committed to amicably resolving any labour dispute through the established and existing municipal legislative structures, as a result, we urge municipal employees to return to work so that the municipality continues to provide quality services to the residents of STLM.

The municipality wishes to apologize to members of the community for the disruption of services, as a result of the continuing unprotected strike and we want to reaffirm our commitment to providing quality services to the residents, we further commit to putting in place corrective measures to restore services to the residents.

It is in this context, that the municipality has decided to convene a media briefing on Friday, 19 August 2022 to give a detailed account of the sequence of events which led to the unprotected strike and later the unfortunate fatal shooting which led to the loss of life.