Gauteng ANC reiterates support for Thoko Didiza

Looters targeted stores in townships around the South African capital, Pretoria, following two days of protests over the ruling party’s choice of mayoral candidate for local government elections in August, police said.

She says the police will arrest any person engaged in illegal conduct.

Didiza, a former minister under the late President Nelson Mandela, was nominated by the ANC amid deep local divisions over the proposed candidates for Tshwane mayor, the municipality that includes Pretoria.

Someone shot at the padlock at the locked entrance to the mall, Colonel Noxolo Kweza said.By Tuesday evening it seemed as if the situation had calmed down though there were still reports of looting and buses being burnt in areas such as Mamelodi.

Looters targeted shops in the Mabopane and Ga-Rankuwa neighborhoods belonging to immigrants, echoing similar attacks past year against foreigners, including Pakistanis and Somalis, who run businesses in poor urban areas of the country.

Matjila, who is also a mayoral committee member in Tshwane, however said the messages were “lies”.

An AFP photographer saw a truck and a bus on fire in Pretoria’s Atteridgeville township Tuesday as protesters continued to vent their anger over a mayoral candidate they say was imposed on them by the national party leadership.

Police said they also arrested 40 of the rioters who were targeting foreigners’ shops as public anger mounted over economic hardships in the build-up to August 3 elections likely to become a referendum on President Jacob Zuma’s leadership.

In another development, Times Live reported yesterday that The Hawks are investigating whether senior African National Congress members in Tshwane are behind the wave of civil unrest in the capital city.

The ANC decided on Didiza in a bid to avoid conflicts from the two factions supporting the incumbent mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa, who is also the ANC Tshwane regional chairperson, and his deputy Mapiti Matsena.

Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said the federation was concerned about the alleged involvement of “leaders of the movement in collusion with tenderpreneurs” in the violent protests.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Wednesday expressed concern at the rising levels of violence and intimidation marring politics ahead of the elections. “When I came to that city they embraced me as their child”.

However, both the ANC and Didiza are confident the party will win the mayoral seat.

“No amount of grievance can justify violence and the destruction of property”, it said in an e-mailed statement.

“While the ANC is still popular in rural communities, mostly supported by President Zuma’s alliances with traditional leaders and many party branch leaders in the countryside, the party has lost significant support in the largest cities”, Robert Besseling, the executive director of risk advisers EXX Africa, said by e-mail.