DA-led uMngeni municipality claims ANC distributed chips, bread and T-shirts to illegal protesters

The DA-led uMngeni local municipality on Tuesday accused the ANC of fuelling the ongoing protest action on the R617 in Mpophomeni in KwaZulu-Natal.

uMngeni mayor Chris Pappas posted footage on social media showing ANC-marked vehicles distributing T-shirts, packets of chips and bread, to protesters, who are up in arms over electricity meter audits.

“There is clear evidence that the disruptions are politically organised. It is no longer about electricity. The municipality urges residents to come forward with information, videos and pictures of those involved. The municipality is keeping evidence of those involved and will where necessary lay criminal charges and or take disciplinary steps,” he said.

ANC Moses Mabhida regional spokesperson Njabulo Mtolo said the party would respond to the allegations after 10am on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the municipality announced its offices would not open on Tuesday morning as the R617 and Mandela highway remained blocked by angry residents.

“Protesters are refusing to allow the uMngeni municipality to conduct a electricity meter audit in their houses. This is a condition of restoring electricity that has been out due to a blown transformer. The transformer was overloaded by illegal connections,” said Pappas.

He said police were at the R617 and Mandela highway intersection searching vehicles.

“This will not stop the protests in the long run. Thank you to the community police forums, SAPS members and private security for working early into the hours of the morning. Almost a year to date of the politically motivated July 2021 riots and once again law abiding communities are coming together to protect life and livelihoods. Please may I ask that we all restrain our actions so as not to incite further disruptions.” 

Pappas said the municipality would go to court to compel public order policing to act if they fail to do so.

“We will hold them to costs and damages for not doing enough to intervene if necessary. Please note that there is a difference between your station-based police member and our traffic officers compared to the public order policing officers. Normal SAPS members are prohibited from conducting public order work. Let us support our local SAPS members to do the best they can given the restrictions. Public order policing must do what they are trained for. 

“This is also to advise residents that the municipality is incurring what would otherwise be known as 'irregular expenditure'. This is because we are having to deploy more security and hire vehicles for our traffic police as measures to increase our ability to respond.

“We are not able to go through the usual procurement mechanism due to time constraints and the emergency situation. We will disclose full expenditure once the situation returns to normal,” said Pappas.

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