Police use rubber bullets to disperse crowd
This was after they had planned an unsuccessful march, to hand over a memorandum to Hibberdene Saps.
Some community members of Mtwalume found themselves in trouble while trying to protect a shopping centre last Friday.
They say they were shot with rubber bullets and were sprayed with pepper spray by the police.
This was after they had planned an unsuccessful march to hand over a memorandum to Hibberdene Saps.
Nombuso Sibisi, a community member, said some people were at the shopping centre protecting it in case people tried to destroy it.
She said protecting the shopping centre was a priority because of past incidents where people looted while some community members protested.
Sibisi said they had planned to submit a second memorandum as they had handed one over in October 2023.
“The first memorandum had grievances such as us being unhappy with the way police were handling cases. Dockets were growing legs and cases would just disappear.”
She also said the community forum works tirelessly, but their efforts are in vain.
“There have been instances where the forum collected illegal weapons from people and handed it to the police, but the same people would have those weapons back.”
She said they had complaints against the police station.
“We were not fighting, but we found ourselves getting shot at. We are disappointed that the police found us at fault when we did not do anything wrong.”
Sibisi said they are unhappy with Hibberdene Saps and they will not stop until they get answers.
“We wish that all the police at Hibberdene be replaced because they are not helping us. We also wish that the minister of police intervenes because we have sent him letters but received no reply.”
Thulasizwe Mkhize, a member of the community forum said when they heard about the march, they decided to protect the shopping centre.
“There are chancers and we thought that we would come here and keep an eye.”
Mkhize said one policeman told the others to shoot and spray them.
“We did not come here to interfere with the community march but to protect the shopping centre. We have an agreement with the police that we would work together with Saps, but we find that they cannot work with us.”
Mkhize said one person was injured by a rubber bullet.
The Saps was contacted for comment, but none was received at the time of going to print.
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