Municipal Manager, Joseph Mogale, says police are monitoring the situation after foreign-owned businesses were also looted in the early hours. Law enforcement agencies have been engaged to restore peace and stability in the municipality.

According to him, cars belonging to the mayor Kim Medupe were also damaged while some vehicles of municipal employees were burnt yesterday. Due to the volatile situation, municipal services were disrupted.

The actual cost of damage caused to Medupe’s properties are yet to be established, but Mogale confirms substantial damage was caused by the fire.

Mogale says it is not clear what triggered the situation as protests started on Tuesday shortly after a parliament public participation session in the local community hall was interrupted.

“It could have been one of those incidents where community members went out of their way to voice out their issues in terms of what was discussed. Later on, it became serious as it was learned that community members intended to block the R52 between Rustenburg and Koster via the N4.”

He adds since his appointment as municipal manager nothing was brought forward to him in terms of a petition or memorandum by dissatisfied community members and at this stage, no unresolved issues are before management.

He says the municipality strongly condemns the damaging of property and call on the aggrieved parties to raise their concerns peacefully with the relevant stakeholders. The municipality is open and available to engage with community members towards resolving the dissatisfaction in order for service delivery to return back to normal.

OFM News