Johannesburg - Three Diepsloot residents, including community leader Lefa Nkala, were arrested for public violence.
Residents vowed to continue to intensify their anti-crime protest until President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses them.
They also expressed having zero confidence in their local police, including Minister Bheki Cele, who has visited Diepsloot on different occasions in an attempt to mitigate complaints from community members.
Diepsloot residents continued to protest yesterday, however some community members were seen forcing spaza-shop owners to close down their businesses.
That prompted the police to warn them to disperse, citing that the strike had elements of intimidation, violence, and illegality.
Community members proceeded to mobilise more people to join the protests; again, some members called out to business owners to shut down and to join them as the protests were tailored to benefit everyone who was affected by the crime that plagues their area.
Nkala’s arrest left community members angry.
As residents walked in groups, mobilising others to participate in the protest, the police warned them more than three times to disperse. Nkala, who was at that moment doing an interview with the media, said they would not allow the police to dictate what they should do in their community.
"We are not going to listen to the police who want us to disperse; we are staging a peaceful march. Not even a single tyre is burning, and the area is not on fire. We are not going to allow these police to intimidate us," said Nkala earlier in the day.
He continued down the street, not far from Extension 5, which leads to the mall and N14 highways. The police saw the presence of the community as a threat, and all hell broke loose as police unleashed stun grenades and opened fire with rubber bullets on them.
This sent residents ran in all directions for cover. A few metres from the area where the police showed their authority, Nkala was seen standing and carrying a 2l bottle filled with water. One senior SAPS member instructed officers to arrest him.
"Arrest this man; he is an instigator. We are not going to hear from people like him; arrest him,“ ordered the officer, whose name is unknown.
He was thrown into a police van, and he did not resist. Moments later, another community leader, Obed Mpoko, said the community was angry and wanted to know why residents had been arrested.
"We are beyond angry that people were arrested, we are not impressed at the way they attacked us. We spoke well and informed them that our protest will be peaceful and that no tyre is going to be burned. We were on our way towards the mall when, all of a sudden, they shot us with rubber bullets. They arrested two of our leaders; they even unleashed pepper spray on one of them. We are not going anywhere; if they want to arrest us, they must arrest the entire community. We will be here the whole night," said Mpoko.
There is a meeting scheduled for today with officials from various government departments, including Justice, Human Settlements, Home Affairs, and more, but with the arrest of Nkala, it is not clear whether or not the meeting will go ahead.
Last week, the community suspended all protests amid leaders having a meeting with government officials from Ramaphosa’s office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
After the meeting, community leaders informed residents that the officials had promised that they would be given a date as to when Ramaphosa would visit their area.
The leaders gave the office until Monday for the date; hence, on Wednesday they hit the streets in protest, saying that their demands had not been met.
Top of the demands is the high crime rate in Diepsloot; in the past three months, crime statistics released by Cele indicated that about 20 people were killed in that area alone.
In the past few weeks, a young girl and a former Community Policing Forum (CPF) leader were killed by assailants who are still at large. The former CPF member will be laid to rest this weekend.
Lizette Lancaster from the Institute for Security Studies said the public's confidence in the police was low.
"We have seen this break of trust nationally in the past two decades. According to the Human Sciences Research Council in 2021, trust in the police in Gauteng is only about 19%, and in the country overall, it’s about 27%, down from 50% a decade before that. It is clear that the police are not able to deal with a rising violent crime rate, and very often the police are seen as not properly investigating cases and arresting criminals who run rampant in areas like Diepsloot," said Lancaster.
The Star