Amandawe protesters claim they are being ‘victimised’

Arrested for public violence, several members of the Amandawe community were unimpressed by the way they were treated. They claimed that most had not committed any acts of violence during protests, but had still been arrested.

The protests had been staged by the Anti-Deployment Association, which had long tried to get the attention of Umdoni Municipality. The protests which followed became violent because they felt disregarded by the municipality.

The first protest began earlier this year when members from the ADA were granted permission for a peaceful march from Amandawe to Scottburgh, where they met the mayor, Thabani Dube, at the municipality and handed over their memorandum.

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Their attempts to improve the lot of their community were unsuccessful, so they began another protest soon afterwards, during which tyres and plantations were burnt, roads were dug up and vehicles set alight. It is believed that passing vehicles were also stoned.

“The only day we will rest is when Umdoni delivers on its promises to the people and gets rid of corrupt and incompetent managers,” said Xolani Ntini, chairman of Anti-Deployment Association, “In the meantime we will keep on fighting until those issues are rooted out within our municipality.”

The 21 arrested for public violence at these protests made many court appearances and were supposed to have had the matter transferred to Regional Court and Saps footage of the protests was to be presented as evidence.

This, however, did not happen and the footage was not shown, for reasons unknown. The Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court withdrew all charges against the accused.

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“Since these charges have been withdrawn, we are going to await the response from the municipality in conjunction with Cogta,” said Mr Ntini. He went on to explain that, while they awaited the response, they would not just accept what was presented to their community – it had to be something worth waiting for. If that were not forthcoming, they would demand the intervention of the Minister of Cogta, Dr Zweli Mkhize.

“We won’t be apologetic for anything happens as we were before. Umdoni Municipality is still in crisis as we speak. There are still other issues pending and it’s a pity because the leadership of Umdoni still thinks the dust has settled,” he said.

“Umdoni municipality is one step away from being under administration and when that time comes it will be so sad because some councillors won’t survive the by-elections that will be taking place and they might even lose the municipality in terms of political leadership.”

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On a different note, now that the ADA’s charges have been withdrawn in court, they plan to sue the captain of Public Order Policing of Port Shepstone.

“All those innocent people who experienced police brutality during the march will be assisted in lodging charges against those brutal culprits who shot innocent people with rubber bullets at point blank range. There were also community members who were shot with rubber bullets inside their homes,” said Mr Ntini.

He felt that they would be letting down all those victims if they did not press charges against the POP. “The struggle will continue and we will not leave any stone unturned.”

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