Shops belonging to foreign nationals were looted on Tuesday night and police allegedly resorted to firing tear gas into the crowd to restore order after the R55 was barricaded by angry protesters. Tshwane metro police spokesperson, Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, on Wednesday confirmed that the R55 road that was barricaded with stones and burning tyres had been cleared and the situation was under control and calm.
According to Mahamba, six people were arrested and are currently being detained at the Wierdabrug police station. Residents from Olievenhoutbosch started protesting on Tuesday morning and barricaded the R55 to prevent Mooiplaats residents from entering Olievenhoutbosch.
This comes after the executive mayor, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, announced to residents in Mooiplaats that they would be relocated to Olievenhoutbosch Extension 27 on 15 April. According to angry Olievenhoutbosch residents, they have been trying to tell the City of Tshwane that the relocation is not viable, as many people in the area are still without proper houses.
“The council cannot just decide to relocate these people from Mooiplaats without addressing the lack of housing with residents who have been staying here for many years. What angered us as residents is that the council promised people that they would be relocated to Extension 27, which is a developing area that was promised to us a long time ago,” the secretary of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Kleinboy Aphane, said.
Aphane said the police arrested some of the community leaders without realising that they were trying to calm the masses and urge them not to vandalise and loot. Many Mooiplaats residents were left confused as to whether or not they should start with the process of relocating. According to Mahamba, one of the shops that belongs to a foreign national was looted on Tuesday night to the point where nothing was left.
A white Opel Corsa was also over turned over by the crowd when the driver unknowingly tried to pass through the R55 on Tuesday during the demonstration staged by fuming protesters, but no one was injured. One of the community leaders, Kenny Masha, a coordinator of the ward committee in the area, told Rekord that it was when the mob was dispersing after staging demonstrations the whole day that things got out of hand.
“When we were scattering, young people just came from nowhere and used this opportunity to loot shops belonging to foreign nationals and started throwing stones. The police then started firing tear gas to control the crowd, which was getting out of hand, and some community members, including community leaders, were arrested,” explained Masha.
He further said the streets were then engulfed with flames from tyres that were burning and they were fired at with tear gas. “I was also affected. When other community leaders were arrested, the community then started vandalising traffic lights and looted shops owned by foreign nationals.”
