UPDATE: Anarchy reigns in iSithebe

A PUBLIC meeting held to discuss issues with the protesting community of iSithebe near Mandeni descended into chaos on Wednesday morning when the crowd’s demands for the release of 120 protestors arrested on Monday were not met.

According to reports from the scene, Mandeni Mayor Siphesihle Zulu had to be escorted to safety as the crowd became increasingly agitated.

The breakdown of talks followed three days of non-stop protest action in the area, which saw a total shutdown of 212 factories, eight of which suffered fire damage, as well as the torching of numerous trucks, bakkies and trailers.

Public Order Policing units from Empangeni and Ulundi as well as Visible Policing members from Newark and Durban were dispatched to control the crowds, their work made difficult by the well-organised protestors, who would simply break up into smaller groups and disappear into residential areas.

The arrest of some individuals, later charged with public violence, arson and malicious damage to property, did little to bring calm, and early on Tuesday morning fire again erupted at a factory.

The arrested suspects were moved to eShowe Magistrate’s Court from Nyoni on Tuesday and have yet to make their first appearance.

Officials say there will be no negotiation on their release.

Unreasonable

Despite the violence of the protests, the exact reason behind the uproar only became clear on Tuesday afternoon.

The community is unhappy with the appointment of two new iNdunas late last year and decided to take action after talks with local leaders failed.

KZN MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Mike Mabayakhulu visited the area on Tuesday to appeal for peace, managing to alleviate some of the pressure.

The calm was however, short lived.

‘The issues had nothing to do with the work environment,’ he told the media during a briefing.

‘We are making a call to all the people of this area to remain calm. Leadership is dealing with the issues that we understand to be the cause of the unhappiness.’

Dylan Meyrick of IPSS Security, who was in the thick of things from the start, said their main priority was assisting where they could.

‘Thank you to my team and the SAPS members who were deployed here. It was a combined effort by us, the police, Business Against Crime as well as Rural Metro, Ithala and Mandeni firefighters.

‘Most of us were going on a couple of hours sleep and it has been tough. On Tuesday morning, protestors fired about 15 shots with live ammunition at firefighters and myself. Fortunately we weren’t hit.

‘The situation is still volatile,’ he said on Wednesday morning.

History of violence

According to one source who wished to remain anonymous, the local economy had suffered in recent years due to the ‘militant tedency’ of the roughly 100 000 strong workforce living in the area.

‘Many businesses have scaled down recently. It just wasn’t profitable anymore with the tendency of the workers to down tools and become violent.

‘These are by far the worst protests I have seen around here since the 1980’s, and they were extremely well organised.’

On a number of occasions the Zululand Observer witnessed protestors taunting police, but scampering as soon as officers gave chase.

‘There is an utter lack of respect for the police and security guards,’ the source said.

‘The setting of fires was nothing more than mischief making. They were just trying to keep emergency services busy, but caused untold damage in the process.’

At the time of going to print, local community leaders were meeting behind closed doors to find solutions while police and the community readied themselves for more violence.