ANC GAUTENG CONDEMNS THE BURNING OF COUNCILLORS HOUSES IN SOWETO

The ANC Gauteng condemns the burning of the houses of councilor Joe Nemaungane and former councilor Mirriam Ramafola in Tshiawelo - Soweto today.

We call upon the South African Police Service (SAPS) to move swiftly to arrest the culprits. The ANC Gauteng cannot tolerate anarchy and vandalism of councillors houses by rogue elements. The incident of torching of the councilors houses was triggered by a mob protesting against cut offs of electricity due to illegal connections in the area.

There is no justification to burn the houses of councilors because Eskom is responsible for electricity connections. The ANC councilors had nothing to hide and have called many meetings to explain to communities about the dangers of illegal electricity connections. Now that electricity transformer failed because of overload and the mob blames the councilors.

No amount of frustration and anger should license protestors to take the law into their own hands. We are just fresh from local government elections, the ink has not even dried from the ballot papers arsonist are undermining the popular mandate of the ANC councilors to improve the lives of ordinary people. We can conclude that the burning of houses is purely motivated by criminal inclination and hatred of the ANC.

Any violent conduct and burning of houses of councilors to highlight certain demands cannot be accepted because it is tantamount to anarchy and disorder.

The majority of the people voted overwhelmingly because they want to strengthen democracy and any violent conduct reverses all the gains. We call upon ANC structures and communities to protect their public representatives and become more vigilant against destroyers of democracy.

Statement issued by Mr Dumisa Ntuli, ANC Gauteng, July 5 2011

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