Police reinforcements are being bolstered with detectives from all divisions having been commanded to report for duty in uniform.
Despite having drawn in Public Order Policing (POPs) members from major centres such as Kuruman and Upington, the police were at the receiving end of a show of force with angry crowds in Kimberley’s worst day of public violence.
Sources within the South African Police Services are hinting at a night of running battles that might spill into the morning hour.
What Friday the 13th shall come with is unknown in that those behind today’s shutdown have insisted on the resignation of municipal manager Goolam Akharwaray and chief financial officer Lydia Mahloko.
The mayhem resulted in mayor setbacks with community facilities such as the R.C Elliot Hall and Recreation Hall set alight. Liquor outlets have been looted with some protestors targeting them as their source of dutch courage. Tuckshops of foreign nationals have also not escaped the ire of the looters.
The windows of a number of businesses in the CBD took a serious battering, including the municipality’s own headquarters and information centre.
Scores of residents have been injured in the day long skirmishes with some treated at the Kimberley Hospital in what was expected to be a day of peaceful protest. Number of those arrested remains unconfirmed on the part of the police.
The ANC in province have called on the Akharwaray and Mahloko to temporarily step aside whilst a resolve is being searched for.
It emerged as a cry against high electricity prices, to a charge against the municipality for intending to implement a R260 surcharge for which the community can claim victory once it was halted. Then there was the issue of the ill-fated public relations company hiring and other allegations being leveled against the two topmost officials to yet another shutdown today.
Kimberley is reeling and tomorrow’s dawn of Friday the 13th shall be greeted by barricaded roads, torched buildings, looted businesses and lots of damaged properties.
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Thabo Mothibi is a former broadcast journalist (TV and Radio) – with specialist reporting experience; SABC Political/Parliamentary and TRC Teams over a period of five years (1995 to 2000).
One key foreign assignment - is the 11-nation African Connection Rally – overland journey from Africa’s northern-most pole in the coastal Tunisian city of Bizerte to the southern-most pole in South Africa’s Cape Agulhas. From the journalistic years, Thabo then delved into Government media liaison and serving two former Ministers and three MECs. He became the Northern Cape Provincial Government’s first department based Communications Director at Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development - 2008-2010 – where he also served as Head of Ministry from 2003 – 2008.
As a former anti-apartheid activist, his political background and professional training aided him in spearheading the Northern Cape ANC’s 2004 National Elections media and publicity campaign and that of the 2006 Local Government Elections.
Whilst based in Waterkloof in Pretoria -2010 to end 2011, he consulted for Manstrat Agricultural Intelligence, then returned to the Northern Cape in 2012 to date, to consult independently and pursue other entrepreneurial interests in media and communications through KwaVuko Communications and Marketing.
Thabo Mothibi obtained his NQF7 through Wits University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management (P&DM) in Johannesburg, a Unilever Mandela Rhodes Academy for Marketing and Communications Academy (UMRA). The goal of the NQF7 programme was to educate and train public and private sector professional communicators and marketers in government communications..
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