Teargas for grannies

Hundreds of protesting elderly people from the volatile Vuwani, which has been plagued by violent protests for months, burnt ANC shirts with images of  Pres Jacob Zuma.

The senior citizens, who included pensioners from Vuwani and surrounding villages, marched to the nearby Vuwani police station and demanded to see the station commissioner, whom they wanted to give a memorundum of their grievances. The angry senior citizens, who were singing anti-Zuma and anti-Malamulele songs, braved the rain and the chilly weather, only to be told by the police they would not be able to see the station commissioner as their march was illegal.

The police gave them the option of electing leaders among themselves who would make representations to the commissioner. That was, however, refused by the elderly residents, who said it was a ploy to identify the leadership in order to arrest them. Among their grievances were that Zuma had to rescind the decision to merge them with the people of Malamulele. They were saying that "he sold them for a Mutsonga woman without consulting them."

They said they regarded Zuma as a capable leader and used to support him when he became president. "We have to think twice about this man. He is a sellout who does not listen to the people. Who said that we want to go to Malamulele? It is high time that the ANC listens to the cries of the people and revise its decision."

They also accused the police of "arresting our menfolk and giving us sleepless nights, banging at our doors. We no longer have privacy, but we will are not deterred.They can arrest us all and put us in jail".

They also demanded that police stop harassing them and release their children, who have been in jail for more than three weeks without bail. They say they want their children to go to school as they are lagging behind in their studies. "They can arrest the whole village, but they will not break our spirits and we won't change and accept to be taken to Malamulele," the elderly said.

After a long standoff,  the police had to disperse them, using teargas. Some of the elderly were injured and arrested during the fracas. They went back to their homes without seeing the station commissioner and without handing over their memorandum.

Leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity say they were angered by the action of the police, who gave them five minutes to disperse even though they were peaceful. “Some of our colleagues were injured during the commotion and we saw some of our friends being loaded into police vans, even though they did not do anything wrong. How do you expect elderly people to disperse in five minutes, with some using walking sticks? We are very angry," one of the elderly said.

Limpopo police spokesperson Col Ronel Otto confirmed that an illegal march by elderly people from Mashau and Vyeboom, who demanded the release of their children arrested for public violence, had taken place. She said the march was monitored with care, but the situation turned ugly and police arrested six people for contravention of the Gatherings Act, possession of dangerous weapons and illegal barricading of the road.

“This is after they threw stones at police and attempted to assault them with knobkieries. They will appear in court soon,” she said.

Date:13 June 2016

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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