Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has vowed to intensify action against those fuelling unrest in the Vuwani area of Limpopo.

Mbalula was speaking at a joint briefing by the inter-ministerial committee on Vuwani. He also visited the area later in the day where he interacted with residents and met with one of the senior traditional leaders, Chief Jeffrey Ramovha.

Mbalula said the time for being lenient on people who were "hellbent on creating a state of anarchy" in the area had come to an end.

"Our commitment by being here is to intensify and consolidate our efforts to ensure that there is peace and the rule of law prevails. We are aware that those who don't want peace and want to achieve everything through violence are equally sophisticated but not more than the state," Mbalula said.

He said police would play their part in making sure that the people of Vuwani enjoy their freedoms.

He called for the thousands of pupils affected by the shutdown to return to class.

"We will succeed working together with our communities to ensure that the perpetrators with selfish interest masquerading as the people's leaders will be brought to book," Mbalula said.

Vuwani has been in turmoil since last year with residents staging violent protests against the decision by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to include the area under the new Lim 345 municipality.

Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen said they were now in a better position to resolve the problems in Vuwani after being able to isolate the problematic areas and so-called "kingpins" who are fuelling violence.

He said only eight of the 36 wards in the area were problematic, citing Vyeboom as one of the "troublesome" places.

Premier Stanley Mathabatha said the MDB's decision should be respected .

He said the provincial government would continue to support residents who wanted to receive services through the new municipality.