KZN Provincial Executive perturbed by incidents of violence and disruption to service delivery in Ladysmith
Welcome to all of you Ladies and Gentlemen of the media.
As Members of the Provincial Executive Council, comprised of the MEC for Economic Development Environmental Affairs, and Tourism, MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the Mayors of uThukela District and Alfred Duma Municipality, we have just concluded an engagement with the Chamber of Business here in Ladysmith.
Earlier on, I had an opportunity to receive a report from Members of the Provincial Executive Council that have been deployed in Ladysmith following the violent protests that have plunged the town into chaos.
We also held talks with concerned members of the community. As expected, all stakeholders are concerned with the current instability and want peace, law and order to be restored.
We have canvassed many issues including the grievances about the functioning of the municipality.
We want to start by condemning in the strongest terms the violent actions that have led to the destruction of property, torching of trucks and water shortages in some parts of the town.
We are deeply concerned to learn that normal day to day operations have ground to a halt with public transport brought to a standstill, resulting in some school children missing schooling and businesses shutting their doors.
Earlier this morning, we visited a site where we witnessed a total of about five trucks that were allegedly torched in the early hours of the morning on the R603 near Colenso which resulted in the blockage of entry and exit points into the town.
We are deeply concerned that the instability of the past weeks has led to the closure of factories and inflicted huge economic losses of over R30 million rand a day.
In addition, the present situation is compromising the future of workers as they are losing over R2 million a day in employee salaries.
We are here because we are committed to bringing back stability and law and order in this town.
We have received proposals from the business community on a number of their concerns. We also attended to the concerns raised by the protesting community members.
As expected, the priority of all stakeholders is on resolving the present crisis. However, we have also been able to cast our horizons further than the present situation and touched on areas that will enhance further growth and economic development in this region.
We are happy that business and community members are willing to be part of the solution, not only in resolving the current challenge but also the future development of this region.
We have directed that the law enforcement agencies clamp down on lawlessness and ensure that heads must roll by the end of this week following the torching of trucks and destruction of property.
We must isolate genuine concerns of the community from criminal conduct.
We have received the report from the Police Generals, indicating that additional law enforcement has been arranged to monitor the situation and ensure that the rights of business and communities are protected at all times.
To date we can report that through police operations the following arrests were made:
- 3 cases of public violence and incitement with 28 arrests
- 1 possession of unlicensed ammunition with 1 arrest
- 1 theft case with two arrests
- 1 case of incitement with 1 arrest for the past two weeks
We reiterate the point that everyone has the right to express their grievances without resorting to violence and acts that borders on criminal behaviour.
Where there are genuine grievances we need to engage stakeholders in order to address any issues amicably.
As a government, we are hard at work and making significant strides in attracting investors into the Province.
The current disruption of services has the potential to undermine efforts to attract investors to this area. We want to assure the community that the government will pull out all the stops to arrest the anarchy that has resulted in the shutdown of Ladysmith.
Anyone that embarks on efforts to destabilise the economy through criminal conduct will face the full might of the law.
As a government we condemn every negative action that undermines our democratic order and the rule of law, genuine concerns will be attended to because we are a caring government that listens to the voices of the people.
We are a government that listens, learns and acts in the best interest of its citizens.
We believe in finding workable solutions through legal and peaceful means.
I thank you.
