(Article from IOL News)
The ANC Youth League has declared war on Helen Zille’s provincial government.
The battle lines were drawn on Thursday after the arrest of two ANC members at a service delivery protest.
ANC Youth League members say if they do not get satisfactory answers from Zille about improving their living conditions by next week Tuesday, they will make the city ungovernable.
They have vowed to bring the province to its knees using the following tactics:
* Stopping all residents from going to work;
* Preventing any and all Golden Arrow buses and taxis from operating;
* And forcing all government cars off the road.
“We have given the Provincial Government seven days to respond to the memorandum,” says ANCYL Regional Committee member Loyiso Nkohla.
“If the attitude is positive then we will report that to the people but if it is not, we will shut this city down.”
He was speaking to the Daily Voice outside of Lingelethu-West Police Station where they demanded the two ANC men be released.
Loyiso says: “When we arrived here to enquire about the arrest of two of our members, we were shot at by those police.
“This tradition by the police to respond with violence does not help the situation.
“We know how to fight back; if and when the time comes for us to fight with the police we will do so.”
Late on Thursday night, reports emerged that the arrested men – Ward 90 councillor Luvuyo Hebe and ANCYL Branch sector secretary Khaya July – were released. But police were unable to confirm this.
City of Cape Town officials say they will not tolerate lawlessness from any organisation.
“The City will not stand idly by while organisations and individuals actively break the law,” says Mayor Patricia de Lille’s spokesman Solly Malatsi.
“It is for this reason that we have laid charges against the ANCYL and the four other organisations that have threatened to make the city ‘ungovernable’.
“The full might of the law must take its course against individuals or organisations that instigate violence in the metro.”
Earlier in the day, Site B resident shut down Mew Way and Pama Road in a service delivery protest.
Community members from TR and Z sections woke up in the early hours and disrupted morning traffic by stoning passing cars and buses.
A group of about 100 residents marched from Mfuleni to the Nuwe Begin housing development.
People chanted: “Zille, you are a whore” and “your governance is stupid.”
Once there, the group was met by an army of armed police officers who prevented them from storming into the yard and causing havoc in the area.
Another group had already started burning tyres and rubbish along Pama Road in Khayelitsha.
Armed Metro Police officers dispersed the crowds by firing rubber bullets.
Hebe and July were taken into custody and hauled off in a cop van shortly after their arrival.
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