Riot: EFF vs ANC?

Barely two months after a previous riot on Progress Avenue, youngsters started fires and were singing on Progress Avenue on the afternoon of Wednesday 26 March.

As police officers remarked to the Record, mostly teenagers were causing chaos as they took to the streets. The Witpoortjie Block Watch arrived at the scene at around 12.15pm.

“We were alerted about people from the Mhlangeni informal settlement wreaking havoc on Progress Avenue at around noon,” said the Block Watch’s Anton Shawe.

A police source later hinted that the protest might have stemmed from the fact that a Mhlangeni shack was burned down owing to friction between ANC and EFF members on Tuesday 25 March. According to his information, the ANC-affiliated woman whose shack was destroyed had filed a protection order with the Roodepoort police the previous week because she feared some EFF members.

During the protest, some youths stole tyres from a merchant who was selling them off the sidewalk just up the road (towards Albertina Sisulu Road). The Record witnessed how the tyres were rolled down into the dip in Progress Avenue, where they were spread along the stretch of the road and set alight. Police officers, while waiting for the Public Order police unit, attempted to extinguish the flames by separating the tyres and debris with pieces of wood.

“We do not know why they are protesting this time, but it is usually about the same complaints we have heard before,” said one officer as he escorted the Record to the scene. Their moving closer had the youths moving away from them towards the Corlett Avenue intersection, of which the traffic lights were destroyed during a previous protest. They shouted threats to the policemen, who only responded with, “Come, come!”.

The Public Order unit arrived as the Record left.