MEC in bid to end Etwatwa violence
Gauteng’s Community Safety MEC is due to visit the troubled township of Etwatwa after a week of violence.
|||Johannesburg - Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane was due to visit the troubled township of Etwatwa, Ekurhuleni, on Monday after a week of violence that resulted in the killing of three suspected gang members.
“She (Nkosi-Malobane) is going to hold a public meeting to engage with the community to find a solution to the violence,” said Department of Community Safety spokesman Ndivhuho Gadisi.
He said that since the violence broke out last week, the MEC had deployed more police officers to the area.
The three teenagers, believed to have been members of the notorious gang Overloaded (OVL), were buried on Sunday.
The emotionally charged funeral was attended by hundreds of residents. Relatives wept uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, the police said three suspects had been taken in for questioning over the murder of the three teenagers, who were all necklaced when enraged residents went on the rampage and targeted those they believed were members of OVL.
“Police are investigating two cases of murder and attempted murder,” police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said on Sunday.
“No one has been arrested or linked to the crimes. Three people have been taken in for questioning, only on suspicion that they were involved.”
Earlier, Ekurhuleni metro police department spokesman Clifford Shongwe had said two suspects, aged 53 and 19, were arrested for allegedly orchestrating last week’s bloody violence.
He said the 19-year-old suspect was found in possession of a knife, and when police questioned him about the weapon, he claimed he was using it for self-defence against OVL.
The violence started last Sunday when OVL members allegedly necklaced a teenager.
On Tuesday, enraged residents retaliated and necklaced two others who they believed were part of the gang.
On Thursday, a fourth teenager narrowly escaped death after he was necklaced with a tractor tyre.
Pupils from Caiphus Nyoka Secondary School said they feared walking in the streets after school because OVL members often tried to force them to join the gang.
Some residents said they haven’t been going to work because they feared the gang would attack them.
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The Star