Mantashe: Sasolburg not protests, but looting

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe has warned that people who get involved in violent protests were “actively destroying their right to strike and to protest”.

In a lecture at Monash University campus in Ruimsig, Johannesburg, last night, Mantashe touched briefly on the recent violence in Sasolburg sparked by the proposed inclusion of the town in the municipality under which Parys falls.

“What you saw in Sasolburg was not protests, it was looting,” he said. Mantashe said the protesters’ action descended into anarchy, and they destroyed their right to protest.

Several shops were looted in the area earlier this week, and buildings and houses were burnt.

See a gallery of the looting: Looting Zamdela

Mantashe also criticised local ANC leaders for not responding to people’s concerns in time. He didn’t mention names, but protesters did call on Free State premier Ace Magashule to talk to them.

Meanwhile Cooperative Governance Minister Richard Baloyi this morning told SAFM radio news that the proposed municipal merger was not scrapped, but merely suspended so that consultations could happen.