A Shoba grandmother was rushed to hospital after a rubber bullet lodged in her left eye during a violent protest in the area last week (May 21).
Mayor, Jerry Sibiya, says the woman was standing among the protestors who were throwing stones at members of Hlobane SAPS when she was hit with the rubber bullet.
Members of Public Order Policing (POP) were called upon to restore order when the illegal march commenced to main road between Vryheid and Louwsberg.
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“The protestors were in the streets from early in the morning. POP was called to intervene when they began to interfere with access to the main road. When POP arrived, the protestors began throwing stones at them, so they retaliated with teargas and rubber bullets. It is unfortunate that this woman was hurt in the cross fire. The protestors were so violent that they even pushed a Corsa utility bakkie off the road and down the adjacent embankment,” said Cllr Sibiya.
When Cllr Sibiya arrived to address the crowd, they handed him a list of complaints regarding service delivery in the area, including complaints about electricity, water, roads, housing and sanitation.
“The main issue that they were protesting about was an electrification project that began, but wasn’t completed. The poles, cables and transformers are in place but the contractor moved on to another ward to begin work there, before completing the work in Shoba. This contractor is busy with the electrification projects in four wards. He was 80 per cent complete in Shoba, so he moved on to ward 4, because he was only 10 per cent complete there. I explained that the electrification project has not been abandoned, it is still underway. They said that their councillor had not properly explained what was happening,” explained Cllr Sibiya.
Four people have been arrested for public violence, according to Cllr Sibiya.
