Chronicle Editor
A classroom was set alight and police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades as tension in Ennerdale, Johannesburg, escalated during protests yesterday morning.
Residents were protesting about service delivery and specifically, the poor condition of schools in the area, eNCA reported.
According to EWN, residents torched a mobile classroom, demanding that the Gauteng education department improves school infrastructure.
Police spokesperson Kay Makhubela told eNCA that protesting learners had been given ample warning to move away from the area before rubber bullets were used.
Five people were arrested for public violence, Makhubela said.
JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar told eNCA there was an attempt to start fires.
“The fires have been extinguished and the situation is under control,” he added.
In March, more than 1 100 pupils from Ennerdale Secondary School stayed at home following fears they could become victims of a tragedy similar to the one that claimed the lives of four pupils at Hoërskool Driehoek, News24 reported.
Meanwhile, the Red Ants security service used rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of people who were evicted from unallocated vacant apartments in Nellmapius in Mamelodi East, Pretoria on Monday morning.
But the residents said they had nowhere else to go.
Scores of people were left sitting on the side of the road with their belongings.
At one point, the Red Ants started shooting at the crowd and some people merely stood around in the vicinity of apartment blocks.
Many of those who were left without a roof over their heads said they would not allow voting to go ahead until the housing issue had been resolved in Mamelodi.
Others said that while many of the apartments had not been finished yet, because sanitation or electricity facilities had not yet been installed, it did not deter them from moving into the flats.
– News 24
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