Deputy Minister in the Presidency visits mall

The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Ms Thembi Siweya visited KG Mall in Vosman.

July 23, 2021

Emmanuel N Mthimunye 2 minutes read

The Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Ms Thembi Siweya visited KG Mall in Vosman.

On Thursday, July 15 she engaged with the Community Policing Forum (CPF), the taxi associations and community members to encourage them to continue to protect economic hubs and the city at large during these violent protests and looting that are happening all over.

Ms Siweya while she was addressing the people at KG Mall said people must work together with the police and the CPF, therefore they mustn’t take the law into their own hands, but to hand over those who are looting to the police so that they could be arrested because they are destroying not the city alone, but the country at large.

The deputy minister seemed to be pleased to see the community members united and ready to stop riots. “I’m glad to see the people of eMalahleni united as one, prepared to fight against the illegal activities of looting that are happening around the country.

People are claiming that they are causing this havoc because they want former president Zuma to be freed from jail. We all know that there is no such thing, these people are pushing their own negative agendas. I want to say to the people of eMalahleni, please keep up the good work and this should end here today, but you must make it an everyday thing.”

The deputy minister added that people must know that these acts will lead to an increase in job losses because more jobs are being destroyed and this is going to impact negatively on the government.

Some members of the community told WITBANK NEWS that they did not sleep; they were at the KG Mall in numbers to ensure that they protect their mall because it’s feeding them and making sure that people are working.

One of the community members, Mr Given Mnisi said as the community they won’t tolerate the looting that is happening in other places, therefore as the people of eMalahleni they will make sure that their shopping centres are kept safe and not vandalised, because at the end they rely on them to provide for their families.

He also acknowledged the effort of the taxi associations for joining forces with the police and the CPF in making sure that all the shopping centres are kept safe in eMalahleni.

Religious leaders were also present to lead in prayer. “As pastors, we are totally against this looting of the shops, therefore we are here today at KG Mall to pray for this evil spirits to perish because this will result in a chaotic situation if we fold our hands and sit back.

We know that gatherings of church members are closed due to the pandemic, but then we couldn’t sit and do nothing, we cannot afford another pandemic to strangle us, we already had enough from Covid, therefore, we won’t allow these looters to give us another pandemic.

This is enough, and it has to stop now,” said pastor Mhlanga.