While riots were rife in the country on Monday night looters raided a spaza shop in Mohlakeng.
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have been experiencing sporadic acts of violence and lawlessness – the reason is said to be the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma.
In Rand West City, however, besides the single spaza shop incident in Mohlakeng, police are well in control and have managed to foil looting attempts at other businesses.
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According to Brigadier Mashole Jacob Manamela, the Randfontein Police station commander, the situation is calm at the moment – police are on alert and monitoring the situation from various points.
Manamela said so far rioters were seen only on Ralerata and Ngonyela Streets in Mohlakeng where police had to put up barricades to bring the situation under control.
They targeted Shoprite: Usave on Ralerata Street, and Pick n Pay on Ngoyela Street, but luckily they were warded off by our members. Unfortunately, they managed to loot a spaza shop on Ngonyela Street,” Manamela said.
He said the cost of the damage and value of the stolen items cannot be confirmed or estimated as yet. A case of public violence has since been opened, but no arrests have been made yet.
“We also had a challenge when rioters stoned police vehicles, and we had no option but to use minimum force in the form of rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, and protect lives and property.
We can’t confirm if the looters were from the hostel, but we’ve seen that many of the rioters were running towards it when we were dispersing the crowd.”
No injuries were reported.
Manamela thanked other members of the community for helping to protect places such as Umphakathi Mall and Shoprite: Usave in Toekomsrus and Randfontein CBD.
We thank these community groups for helping the police to prevent looting and not allowing businesses to be destroyed,” Manamela said.
He issued a stern warning that those who take park in public violence and looting will be dealt with harshly.
Both Bekkerdal and Westonaria Police Stations said there hadn’t been any rioting in their respective precincts.
