THE ANC CALLS ON POLICE TO ACT DECISEVELY TO ARREST MORE SOWETO CRIMINAL ELEMENTS.

The ANC Gauteng gravely condemns the phenomena of violent conduct in the Johannesburg Region. The torching of houses of councilors in Tshiawelo,  vandalism of flats in Dube and destroying of the school in Zandspruit is atrocious and despicable . We call upon government to act decisively to protect community property and councilors.  We are reliably informed that police have arrested five people in connection with the torching of houses.

We want police to use their crime intelligence machinery without restrain to arrest more perpetrators of violence in the affected areas and charge them without delay. The criminal elements must be punished to the highest degree of the law.

We strongly believe that police must not be lenient to disgraceful rogues posing as community leaders who advocate for the destroying people's houses and state property. Police should not allow acts of violence, vandalism and criminality to happen at anytime of day.

We further call upon all ANC structures working with the police to gather and supply intelligence to curb the spread of anarchy and disorder.  The majority of the people voted overwhelmingly for ANC councilors in Tshiawelo, Zandspruit and Dube. ANC councilors are legitimate leaders of community as per the mandate of the electorates.

The ANC councilors in Tshiawelo were in the fore front to make meaningful contribution in the area and were always assisting to find real solutions to all Eskom challenges. They have always taken a lead to make communities aware of their civic responsibilities on service delivery issues.  Really if good service delivery is the upside of our hard won democracy and then certainly violent conduct of criminal elements posing as protestors is the downside of our constitutional democracy.

It is deeply disturbing that ANC councilors are casualties of the electricity problem they are not even responsible for. It is the responsibility of Eskom to communicate with communities. Those who have burned the houses are people who resist change and want our society to be abnormal and chaotic.

The burning of houses of councilors is an act of anarchy and chaos by criminals acting under the disguise of service delivery protest. The families are still suffering from mental and physical pain as a result of the incident. They are still traumatized by the event.

Statement issued by Mr Dumisa Ntuli, ANC Gauteng, July 7 2011

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