Category Archives: Wesselton

Daily Maverick: Tactical Response Team’s brutal reign in Wesselton, Mpumalanga

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-12-10-tactical-response-teams-brutal-reign-in-wesselton-mpumalanga

Tactical Response Team’s brutal reign in Wesselton, Mpumalanga

by Mandy de Waal

Community violence and police brutality have returned to the Mpumalanga township of Wesselton, just outside Ermelo, where it is alleged that the feared Tactical Response Team has become a law unto itself. Residents claim that beatings and humiliating rituals are the order of the day for the people of Wesselton, adding that the local SAPS office refuses to hear their cries for help. As the situation escalates, they are striking matches. By MANDY DE WAAL.

Residents of Wesselton in Mpumalanga went on the warpath recently, torching two cars to protest alleged police violence and the occupation of the area by the Tactical Response Team (TRT).

“On Wednesday 05 December the people took to the street and torched two cars because they were angry with the Tactical Response Team. A few hundred, mostly young people, were protesting and poured petrol on both cars and set them alight,” Msukaligwa Concerned Committee (MMC) deputy chairperson, Dumisani Mahaye, reported to Daily Maverick.

Mahaye said a woman was shot with a rubber bullet on the cheek. “The TRT wanted to arrest her grandson, and the woman wanted to know why, when she was shot in the face,” Mahaye said. He added that the Tactical Response Team had been a fixture in the township for well over a month now.

According to Mahaye the police division, known in the townships as the “amaberet”, were deployed on and off in the Mpumalanga township during 2012, but moved in permanently during November; local residents heard they will be present in the area until mid-January 2013.

“We don’t know why they are here, but our concern is how they behave in the community. Usually people hang out in the parks and every time when the TRT get people, they search them, they beat them, they pour liquor on them. These police sometimes they want all of the people to lie face down on the floor – like to sleep on the floor – and the police walk all over those people,” Mahaye said, before describing his experience with the Tactical Response Team first hand.

“I was beaten by these police while I was in a club. The first time was on a Friday, when they came in and told the DJ to switch the music off. Then a man wearing a brown overall in the TRT screamed: ‘Face the wall. Face your future’. That is when the beatings started. If people weren’t quick enough, or they didn’t face the wall, they were in trouble. If the wall is full, people have to fall down and lie on the ground face-down,” the township activist told Daily Maverick about an attack which took place at a local night club called Dube Tonight in September 2012.

“When they first got here I tried to talk to the TRT. I said: ‘Look, I don’t mind you searching me but…’,” Mahaye’s voice trailed off. He relayed how the TRT started to beat him even before he could get the words out of his mouth. “On Sunday they were back, but I knew how they work now. Some guy screamed and told the DJ to switch the volume off, and then the usual routine followed,” he said.

“The TRT will slap you. They will kick you. They will punch you with the fist in the stomach. If they do not walk on the tables they walk on people’s bodies on the floor. And you don’t look at them. You don’t ask questions. You don’t say anything. If you look at them or ask questions they will brutalise you,” Mahaye told Daily Maverick during a telephonic interview from Wesselton.

Mahaye further alleged that anyone who asked these police any questions about what was happening would be beaten up. “If you ask any questions the TRT will beat you up and they will say to you: “You are not in the position of authority here. We are the ones with guns here. Just do as you are told’,” the activist added.

Mahaye said he was an eyewitness to another incident at a small shopping complex called Thembise in the township. “There are ten shops and a butchery and a bottle store, so the people, they hang out and braai their meat. They open the boot of their car, play music and braai. When the TRT got there they told everyone to face the wall or the floor. They made everyone do push-ups. After that the beatings started,” he said.

“Ever since these police arrived there are ongoing complaints. It is happening almost every day now that people are traumatised; they have firearms pointed at them; people are hit, and our residents are getting very, very angry,” said Mahaye, who stressed that he condemned the torching of a security company vehicle and a Transnet vehicle on Wednesday 05 December 2012 when residents went on the rampage.

“The problem is that the people are now getting so angry that they want to fight the TRT. They want to kill these police or to burn them, because we are making reports but nobody is listening to us,” Mahaye said.

The Wesselton activist said affected residents had gone to the SAPS police station in Ermelo to lodge complaints against the Tactical Response Team, only to be told that the local police weren’t able to help. “If someone wants to open a case they are told to go to the Ipid (the Independent Police Investigative Directorate) offices in Nelspruit. The police here say they don’t have the power to help us. Now the community think that this is a way of trying to get the cases squashed,” said Mahaye.

The Wesselton resident said that Nelspruit was located some 212 kilometres away from Ermelo, and that taxi fare to and from the city meant that locals would need R400 for a return trip. Mahaye said that people didn’t have the money to make the journey.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson, Colonel Leonard Hlathi, said violent incidents the TRT were alleged to have been involved in had to be reported to, and investigated by, Ipid before he could comment. “One cannot just give a comment without any investigations being done. We have all the resources in place for people who need to make such a report, and such an incidence will be investigated by Ipid. I can’t make any comments until such time as these incidents are reported to Ipid, so these complaints can be levelled against the police,” Hlathi said.

When Hlathi was advised by Daily Maverick that Wesselton residents were being instructed by local police to travel some 212 kilometres to Nelspruit to report the incidences of violence to Ipid, he was outraged. “Ipid has done marketing, even on radio, to say that you don’t have to go to them physically to report a case or uncalled for conduct. People can just phone them or get the number from Ipid,” the colonel said.

“There is no reason for the local police to hide this information because Ipid is a legitimate body. There is no way the police can hide this information and I think that you can quote me to say that no police person has the right to hide the availability or existence of Ipid, let alone a number, to anyone who wants to lodge a complaint. The police can’t do that. They can’t do that,” Hlathi said.

Wesselton was set ablaze during service delivery protests in February 2011 which set the stage for violent confrontations between residents and the SAPS. Mayahe and some 100 other residents were arrested and charged with public violence after municipal property to the value of R350,000 was damaged.

After the protests, Mahaye and other activists were picked up by the police and allegedly tortured, with the aim of implicating senior provincial politicians who opposed Premier David Mabuza. Mahaye stated that during the brutality he was repeatedly smothered in plastic, had his head dumped in water, and tortured in ways that would make him stop breathing. Later video evidence of the SAPS abusing a local resident would come to light, and back up the activist’s claims of torture.

David Bruce, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, recently asserted that police action in Wesselton created a template for what was to follow at Marikana in August 2012. “In both operations, it is alleged that those who were involved in the protests were arrested, with a large number of them being tortured. After the Wesselton operation, this led to 25 charges of assault being lodged with the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). In Marikana, this led to 94 cases of assault being lodged with the ICD’s successor, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate,” wrote Bruce in Business Day.

“In both cases, it is alleged that individuals among the police torturers focused on a specific objective. In Wesselton, it was to get confessions that political opponents of Mabuza had instigated the protests. In Marikana, the alleged objective of these torturers was to obtain ‘confessions’ that former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema had instigated the protests,” he added.

Bruce penned that a SAPS force which had turned into “political instruments whose task is to uphold the interests of the ruling elite” within the ANC were deployed in both Ermelo and Marikana. “The ANC’s efforts towards politically re-orientating the SAPS have not been comprehensive but have been targeted at specific components, most notably the Crime Intelligence and Operational Response Services divisions.”

Bruce added that the SAPS could no longer be trusted to play a nonpartisan role in politics and stated that “a culture of political deception, manipulation and intimidation that extends to the use of assassination as a political instrument” would be in force in SA. Bruce’s picture of the future is one where the police stand back when members of the ruling party are violent, but actively target dissidents.

Back in Wesselton, Mahaye heard that the police wanted to pick him up in connection with the latest protests. “The police hit people in the street to try to try get confessions about the protest. They want someone to confess and to point out another person, and then they go and find that person and beat them up too so as to get more confessions,” Mahaye said during the phone interview.

Twenty Wesselton residents were arrested after these latest riots, amongst them four youths between the ages of 14 and 16.

“Someone phoned me to say that I am on the list of the people that must be arrested, and that the police say that I am the instigator for the riots last week. But no. I am not. This time I am not involved, but still they think I am the one,” Mahaye said.

The activist no longer sleeps at his home and lives in fear because of the trauma of his alleged torture experience. He says he fears that if he is apprehended by the police again, he will be brutalised.

For many in troubled townships, a nonpartisan police force that terrorises communities and targets activists and opposition politicians is no portent of the future: it is the awful present tense they’re forced to live with.

M&G: Community leader lives in fear of his life

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2011-04-01-community-leader-lives-in-fear-of-his-life/

Community leader lives in fear of his life
LUNGILE DUBE JOHANNESBURG – Apr 01 2011

One of the suspects interrogated by police about Mpumalanga’s violent service delivery protest in Ermelo last month says he is now living under guard in fear for his life after his experience in custody, when he was allegedly interrogated about his relationship with Mpumalanga politicians seen to be opposed to Premier David Mabuza.

Residents of Wesselton township took to the streets in February in protest against poor service delivery and the alleged manipulation of the ANC’s list of candidates for the coming local government elections.

Bongani Phakathi spoke to the Mail & Guardian for the first time since his arrest. Phakathi was one of the candidates who did not make it on to the list for the elections.

He said that he had met the Ermelo station commissioner, Colonel Zachariah Nyathi, the day after the protest erupted and Nyathi had told him he was suspected of being behind the riot. Nyathi denied this, saying he had met him as a community leader, not because he was a suspect.

Phakathi handed himself over to police crime intelligence in Pretoria two days after the protests erupted. He said he surrendered to police outside Mpumalanga because he felt he could not trust them after he was told some of them had been seen with regional ANC members.

While he was being interrogated national police commissioner General Bheki Cele was addressing the residents of Wesselton. Cele announced that police wanted to arrest certain individuals and that one of them had already handed himself over at a police station in Johannesburg.

Phakathi said he was interrogated for 14 hours by the Mpumalanga head of the Hawks, General Simon Mapyane.

“Mapyane asked me where I worked and where I got the money from to fund the protest. He asked me about my relationship with [provincial legislature member and perceived rival of Mabuza] Fish Mahlalela and Mbombela mayor Lassy Chiwayo. I explained my reasons for not cooperating with the Mpumalanga police, including the fact that I was asked about my relationship with politicians not aligned to the chairperson of the ANC in the province [David Mabuza].

“I don’t feel safe any more in my own house because the questions were not related to community issues, but individual politicians.”

Police allegedly raided his and his mother’s house and there are claims that they assaulted the occupants.

Mpumalanga poice spokesperson Brigadier Lindela Mashigo confirmed that Mapyane had interviewed Phakathi but denied that he had asked him about his work or his relationship with politicians.

“At the time it was believed that he could assist in establishing certain facts and provide the police with an understanding of the unrest in Ermelo and not because he was believed to be instigating it.

“A number of houses were raided but I cannot deny or confirm that his mother’s house was one of them. Those who claim assault may complain to the Independent Complaints Directorate.”

Phakathi hired private security after allegedly declining to record his statement on video for the police to decide whether to grant him state security. “Why should I be recorded on video?” he asked.

He says his life is threatened and he no longer enjoys freedom of movement.

“After all this, it is clear to me that I have been targeted because of my views on the politics of Mpumalanga. I never supported Mabuza during and after the ANC conference and this is the price I have to pay. I don’t understand how police came to the conclusion that I was behind the protests and asked me about Mabuza’s rivals.”

Chiwayo is involved in a legal battle with provincial police commissioner Thulani Ntobela following complaints he made to Cele about the manner in which Mpumalanga police are handling political cases in the province.

The complaints were made after Chiwayo arranged for Phakathi to hand himself over to Pretoria crime intelligence police.

Probe into Ermelo deaths

Protesters in Wesselton township claim a political conspiracy is behind police brutality.

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is investigating two deaths following claims that Mpumalanga police tortured community members accused of starting the violent protests in Wesselton township outside Ermelo in February.

ICD national spokesperson Moses Dlamini said on Tuesday that the cases involved different South African Police Service units, including the National Intervention Unit, the Tactical Response Team (TRT), the Crime Combating Unit and the Dog Unit.

“The ICD is investigating two deaths due to police action, six cases of malicious damage to property and 25 cases of assault,” said Dlamini.

Last week M&G Online carried a video clip taken by a Wesselton resident showing police forcing a resident to roll along the ground, allegedly while firing rubber bullets at him.

Dlamini said officials from the ICD visited Wesselton on March 24 to gather more information.

He said the investigation was complicated because of the different units involved, but that once completed, the dockets would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision on whether to prosecute.

“Some of the units were from outside Mpumalanga, namely Limpopo and Gauteng. For the culprits to be brought to book, it will be necessary for them to be identified, and this will not be easy given the number of units involved and their different bases,” he said.

The protests took place in the township from February 13 to 16 following complaints that the ANC’s Gert Sibande regional executive council tried to impose candidates on its wards.

Municipal services such as refuse management and the provision of electricity and water were shut down for a week, while damage caused by the protesters was estimated at about R350 000 and included smashed traffic lights and road signs and the blockading of access routes to the township.

National police commissioner General Bheki Cele visited the area and deployed 160 police officers, including members of the TRT, to restore order.

The man accused of leading the 25 protesters arrested on March 2, Dumisani Mahaye, from Ward 1 in Wesselton, claimed this week that there was a bigger political conspiracy behind the alleged brutality.

“After we were arrested for the protests we were divided into groups of four and taken to the radio control room in the Ermelo police station where we were tortured into confessing things we did not know about,” said Mahaye.

He said he was tortured into naming provincial legislature member Fish Mahlalela, Mbombela mayor Lassy Chiwayo and Ward 5 branch member Bongani Phakathi as the people who had paid him to instigate the protest.

“For their information, I have never met Chiwayo or Mahlalela. I know them only from TV. It is sad that the police are being used by unscrupulous leaders to fight their political battles,” he said.

He said the police had given electric shocks to detainees, wrapped their heads in plastic and held their heads under water.

“I was forced to confess that I made and distributed petrol bombs that were used against the police during the protests. Most of us confessed to all the things we were told to say because we were afraid they were going to kill us,” said Mahaye.

Mahaye said the charges of public violence against 19 of the 25 were dropped. He is one of six accused who are out on bail of between R200 and R800.

The six are expected to appear in the Ermelo Regional Court on June 20.

Mahaye said that Phakathi, the preferred candidate for Ward 5, was still in hiding because his life was in danger in the township.

“I heard that Chiwayo took him to Luthuli House where they have organised him bodyguards,” he said. Chiwayo confirmed that he took Phakathi to Luthuli House for protection because he was informed that his life was in danger from the police.

“Lord knows what could have happened to that young man’s life if he stayed in Wesselton,” said Chiwayo.

“Some people wanted him dead and we could not even trust provincial police commissioner General Thulani Ntobela to protect him because I suspect that some police officers are protecting certain corrupt leaders in the province.”

Meanwhile, Chiwayo said he had submitted a 100-page affidavit to General Cele and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa containing details of how some politicians had been assassinated in Mpumalanga, including late Mbombela speaker Jimmy Mohlala, who was shot and killed outside his home in Ka Nyamazane on January 2009.

“I trust Mthethwa because I once shared a house with him when I was still in Johannesburg,” he said.

Chiwayo’s allegations that the police are protecting corrupt politicians in the province prompted Ntobela to lay a charge of defamation against him at the Nelspruit police station on February 18.

The following day Chiwayo counter-charged Ntobela, adding five additional charges.

The charges laid against Ntobela are of defamation of character, crimen injuria, defeating the ends of justice, intimidation and incitement. — Sydney Masinga

M&G: Profile of a town on fire

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-02-28-profile-of-a-town-on-fire

Profile of a town on fire
KWANELE SOSIBO

The fear of police brutality is so tangible in Ermelo’s Wesselton township that it is hard to separate it from the blanket of coal fumes that floats in the quiet night air.

Paranoia, too, is palpable as we talk to a group of youths in a tavern in Phumula, near the epicentre of recent rioting. As they regale us with their stories, which are repeated during our stay in Ermelo, they take turns in heading to the door, making sure that no police are inching their way towards the nondescript drinking hole.

A skinny, dark-skinned kid, who calmly whips me in a game of pool later, tells me that they are being intimidated by the police. They sometimes herd locals out of taverns into the road and force them to roll home.

The obese woman behind the counter and her teenaged son eye the scene closely. The guys quickly gulp their last quart and disappear into the night. The next morning, as we head back into the township, we pass a crew of municipal workers removing damaged traffic lights on Mabuza Street. Opposite them are two armoured police vehicles parked on the grassy verge, keeping a watch on the intersection where rubber-bullet shells still litter the pavement.

The fibrous remains of burnt tyres lie in the streets like giant blemishes on a diseased skin, a metaphor for the township itself. Damage to municipal property from the town’s explosion was estimated at R350 000.

The number of young people cruising the streets, even though it is mid-week, gives the township a school-­holiday vibe. A youth we ask for directions to Thembisa, a section further north, offers to take us around.

Upliftment committees

We stop at a four-room house with coarse, greyish plastered walls on Mabuza Street, where 20-year-old Simphiwe Sibeko, a member of the Msukaligwa Community Committee (MCC), a group of upliftment committees that joined together in April last year, gives us her version of why Wesselton went up in flames. “We are fighting for jobs, nothing else,” she says, with her 15-month-old baby on her arm.

With a blanket wrapped around her torso, she reels off several common complaints — bribery for jobs, cracked houses as a result of coal-mine blasting and, of late, police who seem to fire rubber bullets indiscriminately. Outside the house where she rents a back room there is evidence of a fiery barricade, etched on the tarred street like a newly painted road sign.

“They shot at our house as well,” she says, pointing to a cracked window near the front entrance. “There were young kids standing around the yard and I was holding my baby. We had to run inside.”

She says the police are on a witchhunt and informants are helping them to compile a list of rioters. “The police come here calling out people’s names,” Sibeko says. “My uncle was detained, kicked around and tortured.”

Her zeal suggests the protests were the uncoordinated first steps of a baby learning to walk. Sibeko’s uncle, Sbusiso Sibeko, was arrested last Friday, under the pretext that he was a murder suspect. “I was beaten non-stop from Friday evening until 5.30 the next morning,” he says, speaking from a friend’s cellphone two days later. “They claimed they had footage of me committing acts of public violence but when I asked them to show it to me they refused. “They questioned me about my whereabouts and asked me to give them names of people that took part in the rioting.

“Then they said they wanted my gun. So they beat me until I told them that my father had a gun, which they went with me to pick up.” His father’s firearm was confiscated and he was returned to the police cells where he was held until the following Monday, when the charges against him were dropped. Sbusiso Sibeko claims he was severely beaten, hot water was poured on his head and he was kicked in the testicles.

Still traumatised and without a phone (which was allegedly also taken by the police), he was unsure where to lay charges, although he felt it would be futile. Nhlakanipho Dladla, a 16-year-old with a festering rubber-bullet wound on his elbow, says he and a group of friends were walking down the street from shops nearby when police tossed them into a van and drove them to the police station to fingerprint them.

Caught up in the crossfire

Further up the street in Thembisa, near the storefronts where the e.tv news crew was caught up in the crossfire, Mfanimpela Khubeka is eating chicken with some of his friends. He considers our request for a quick interview. A dark, muscular figure in canvas takkies, jeans and a matching blue shirt, Kubheka is young, charismatic and defiant. “Sure, we can talk,” he says, with a gap-toothed grin.

When I point to the police vehicles (a minibus and Casspir) in the middle of the vast tarred square, he gives them a dismissive glance: “I say whatever I want. I enjoy freedom of speech.” It’s a sunny day, so we walk across the yard and sit on the shady steps in front of Vuka Bottle Store, closed because the police, locals claim, emptied it of its stock.

“There is a curfew set for 7.30pm here,” says Khubeka, MCC chairperson. “Then they go from door to door looking for specific people.” The MCC, he says, has a mandate from the community and they engage with the mayoral council.

“Our memorandum has been growing and we are fighting against nepotism, bribery and for the mines to come up with employment strategies, skills development initiatives and youth economic development plans. We have the same manifesto as the ANC. We want a better life for all.”

Although municipal officials say they never received a memorandum from the committee, Kubheka says that he was on e.tv recently, brandishing a list of demands, dated January 27, which he says was signed by the municipal manager, Ace Dlamini.

On February 13, a day before the riots, the MCC held a community report-back meeting, which was followed later by a ward meeting in ward five, where the community began complaining about candidates being imposed on them. It seems that a combination of these two issues sparked the protests, although MCC members maintain ANC politicking is secondary.

Camp warfares

“As you know there are camps in the ANC — they want us to be involved in their camp warfare,” Kubheka says. “The community is trusting the MCC to deliver on employment strategies and other issues.” As my interview with Khubeka draws to a close, he finally reacts to the posse of young men camped around the square that doubles as a car wash. They have been tense all day but when a bulky policeman conducts a lengthy cellphone call outside the police minibus and appears to be scanning the area, they become increasingly fidgety and disperse. Kubheka and two friends follow, asking for a lift to a house down the road.

A tavern owner corroborates stories of random police searches and the “roll home” torture tactics. She complains that police have been beating grown men and now that she has cut her operating time to 7.30pm, she is no longer able to pay her suppliers every Monday.

Muzi Chirwa, the ANC regional council secretary, says he has never heard of the MCC and believes that if they exist they are allowing people with ulterior motives to hijack their agenda.

Although a lack of basic services is obvious in parts of Wesselton and would-be ANC councillors are clearly jostling for position, the way the police are said to have responded to the current crisis suggests the emergence of a repressive beast reminiscent of the National Party’s “crossing the Rubicon” days. After a day in Wesselton, one can almost picture the Groot Krokodil doing cartwheels in his grave.

Responding to allegations of police torture, Captain Leonard Hlathi, Mpumalanga police spokesperson, says: “If anyone is claiming to have been tortured, the Independent Complaints Directorate, as the watchdog of the police, is there to probe those allegations. It is no use for them to complain to the media. “All members of the South African Police Service are guided by the law and behave themselves in a manner that is responsible while carrying out their responsibilities. I know for a fact that our members have been behaving very well, even in this instance.”

Hlathi says that of the more than 120 people who were arrested in connection with the protest, all had been released and 58 were out on bail. On Wednesday he said that the situation was quiet. But the message from the MCC seems to suggest that this was just the quiet before the eruption of another storm. “We have told people to calm down because people out there know there is a place called Ermelo,” Ku­bheka says as a parting shot.

“National must come here from Luthuli House and talk to us, except for Gwede Mantashe [ANC secretary general]. He called us ‘good fools’ because he believes someone has bought us. How can someone buy a whole community?”

Sunday Independent: Ermelo residents see no reason to vote

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/mpumalanga/ermelo-residents-see-no-reason-to-vote-1.1029225

Ermelo residents see no reason to vote

Dianne Hawker

“We don’t care about Gucci and Prada. We just want delivery eKasi,” says a Wesselton resident after four days of heated, violent protests in the township near Ermelo, Mpumalanga.

It is Friday morning and he is one of scores of young, unemployed men walking the streets.

The anger in his voice is palpable. He spits the words “Gucci” and “Prada” out, referring to the penchant for fine things ANC politicians have acquired in their years of power.

The man, who identifies himself only as Nkosinathi, believes he will probably chastised and perhaps even killed for speaking out against the ruling party. This is Mpumalanga, after all.

“I’ve been receiving threats. People are telling me we are on a hit list because we are anti-revolutionary and anti-ANC. We are not anti-ANC. These are the very same issues that confront the communities of other areas. We want decent water, toilets and jobs. But (those other communities) are living in fear.”

Residents of Wesselton say they are no longer afraid. They faced off against police, some of whom used live ammunition, and most have lived to see the next day. One “comrade” has died. Solomon Madonsela has become a martyr.

What simmers here is an anger that has turned into a resolute decision: we will not accept this; we deserve better.

The signs of their struggle are not contained to one section of the sprawling settlement. Destroyed traffic lights, Telkom public phones, burnt containers and the tell-tale black smear left by burnt tyres can be seen throughout the area. Where there are no tyre marks, stones and glass are scattered on the road and pavement.

Nkosinathi spends his time with other angry young men. Some would call them militant. They are fiercely political. The call each other “comrade” and say they are fierce ANC supporters, but in the same breath vow not to vote for the ruling party – or anyone else – in the upcoming local government elections.

Community leader Dumisani Mahaye says he will make the proposal to thee community at a meeting to be held tomorrow.

Mahaye says the party, which has a majority of council seats in the Msukaligwa Municipality, should be “grounded like an errant child” by communities withholding their endorsement at the polls.

“The ANC has been promising for years. It’s been doing that since 1994. But it never lives up to its promises.”

Another “comrade” appears and joins the circle, saying the ANC’s approach doesn’t help, but arguing that the solution cannot be to vandalise state and private property. “Hasn’t the community learnt anything after 15 years? You can voice your anger, but it’s wrong to damage property. When we are angry we can’t break things that belong to us,” he says. Some nod in agreement. “The ANC angers people because it doesn’t engage them.”

There is a suggestion that 50 percent of all local jobs be retained for residents, both at the surrounding mines and in the council.

The circle is divided – some call for a 70 percent job quota for locals, while others say skills development is what’s really needed.

Mahaye goes so far as to suggest that councillor salaries be scrapped and that money be used for skills projects.

“People don’t work because they are not skilled. Why not take the councillor salaries and build something that will help people? What do the councillors do? People don’t see them. Why should they get paid?”

And older resident overhears the debate and offers his opinion. Having lived in Ermelo for more than 40 years, Jeremiah Khumalo is just as frustrated as the young men. His gripe is with a seemingly inefficient and uncaring municipality, which, he says, has ignored a request for technicians to be sent to his home to repair a burst pipe.

He takes us to his home, where water can be seen running from a hole in his driveway into the street. He scoops it out to show us the damaged pipe, explaining that he has reported it to at least three different people, including a clerk in the mayor’s office. Two months later, water still runs into the street.

Several streets away we are shown another property that has lost a large portion of its lawn to a growing body of water.

According to homeowner Moses Duma and several neighbours, council workers dug the hole “and just left it” in April.

Residents say children regularly play in the dirty water after school. Even more disturbing is the electric cabling which runs beneath the hole.

Duma says the hole was initially dug to fix a burst pipe. “They keep promising: they are coming, they are coming. But they don’t come.”

His brother Collin emerges from the house and tells us that a child nearly drowned recently. “The kids like to play in this water. I saw one of them nearly drown but I managed to get them out.”

Municipal spokesman Surprise Ngcongo said last week that the protests “had nothing to do with service delivery concerns as greatly exaggerated in the mainstream media”.

“Msukaligwa Municipality did not receive any written memorandum from the angry protesters relating to service delivery concerns.”

However not everyone in Wesselton is a “comrade”, hellbent on facing off with the state – headed by a previous generation of comrades, who many believe have forgotten their cadres.

At the small shopping complex that was the scene of violent clashes with police last week, we find Sibusiso Madi. Beside him are crutches; his foot is in bandages. He is not political, says he was not involved in protests, and just wants to return to work.

Madi is one of few residents who are gainfully employed, but today finds himself sharing an uncomfortable set of steps with the many unemployed youngsters who walk the streets of Wesselton.

“I was on my way to work. I was coming to catch my bus over there (he points at a nearby bus shelter). The police didn’t ask any questions, they just shot at me. I had to run away.”

What’s worse, as a result of the protests, Madi was trapped in the burning township from Monday, when he was shot, until Thursday. “No ambulance could come in. And the community wouldn’t let any cars in. I was prepared to pay R40 for a cab to go to the hospital. But they couldn’t come in,” he says.

As a result of the protest, he has lost out on the R1 600 he would have earned in a fortnight doing construction work on the N17 highway.

Selina Ngwenya is also just trying to get by. She sits on a pile of used coal, looking for pieces that can be used. She does not have electricity and uses the coal for cooking. “Sometimes we spend the whole day doing this. We have to look for pieces that are big.”

She also took part in the protest: “We want toilets, water and electricity.”

In Khayelihle, a new part of the township, none of the roads are tarred and there are a few green portable toilets in the area.

We see about five taps placed throughout the shack settlement, and residents are seen walking back and forth with containers.

A group of women, including Sibongile Khosi and Hlezipho Khumalo, complain that the portable toilets are often not collected for two weeks. They also believe the area needs more taps.

Will Khosi vote this year? “I won’t vote. Who will I say I’m voting for? How long have I been dirtying my ID book with stamps, going to vote? I don’t trust anyone.”