Voetsek!
Protesters Torch Another Police Station
Jan
31, 2014 • Written by: Staff Writer
Bronkhorstspruit – Residents
in Zithobeni, outside of Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng torched a police station
on Friday during a service delivery protest gone violent, reported Eyewitness
News on Friday. This was the second torching of a station in less than a week.
On Thursday residents set fire to a Zithobeni municipal office and three trucks
after…
Bronkhorstspruit – Residents in
Zithobeni, outside of Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng torched a police station on
Friday during a service delivery protest gone violent, reported Eyewitness
News on Friday.
This was the second torching of a station in less than a week.
This was the second torching of a station in less than a week.
On Thursday residents set
fire to a Zithobeni municipal office and three trucks after the Mayor did not
arrive for a meeting that was supposed to take place. Zithobeni residents had
been protesting all week for better service delivery.
Protesters say their
municipality is overcharging them for services, and they have not had access to
water and electricity for almost a month.
“It’s still tense today,”
police spokesperson, Sarah Mcira told EWN. “The police station has been
burnt and no one has been arrested.”
The South African Police
Service (SAPS) has come under fire by outraged community members this week
following the deaths of two more protesters in Relela on Tuesday. The death
toll has now reached eight at the hands of the police since the beginning of
the year.
According to the Institute
for Security Studies (ISS), indicators show that police brutality is rising,
while trust in the police is lowering.
“Warnings were ignored and
now we’re seeing the consequences,” he said.
