UPDATE Community protests against power outages
The community of Extension also 4 beat up two men whom they said looted and burnt a foreign national's shop.
UPDATE: 20 June (10pm)
A safety group warned residents to avoid the N17 near Bethal in the direction of Ermelo and Morgenzon as protesters are still blocking the road.
The rioters are protesting against daily being without electricity for hours on end.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, said she received a notice from the municipal call centre that the electricity of a certain area did not come back on after load shedding today. When the senior electrician went to the sub-station in eMzinoni to investigate, the protesters again set tyres on fire and then threatened to set fire to sub-station with the electrician inside.
The electrician escaped to the police station to seek help. However, the police could not corroborate this incident.
The elderly people at both old age homes in the centre of Bethal town, Residentia Palmoord and Silwerjare, have also been without electricity the entire day and are discouraged.
Community protests and shuts down eMzinoni
Angry residents took to the streets of eMzinoni on Friday night, 19 June at about 7pm to burn tyres and shut down the township.
The residents are upset because there was no electricity since that morning.
They set alight a truck and another vehicle on the Standerton and Morgenzon roads respectively.
A woman run over by a fleeing truck and died on the scene.
The community of Extension also 4 beat up two men whom they said looted and burnt a foreign national’s shop.
The police arrested two men for public violence.
