Parliament debates Vuwani violence

The DA has called on the ANC to publicly condemn the actions of a councillor who was allegedly involved in the recent unrest in Vuwani.

Cape Town – Members of Parliament on Tuesday held a debate on the recent unrest in Vuwani in Limpopo which saw over 20 schools burnt down or severely damaged.

Opening the debate, Democratic Alliance MP Kevin Mileham said the African National Congress should publicly condemn the actions of a councilor who was reported to be involved in the torching of the schools at the weekend.

“The ANC must publicly condemn the action of their councilor and take disciplinary steps,” he said.

The Economic Freedom Fighters’ Floyd Shivambu said communities should not be drawn into internal ANC squabbles and called on the people in the area to direct their anger at the ANC.

“Direct that anger at the ANC, and the correct platform to do so is August 3, during the local government elections.”

Inkatha Freedom Party MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said education “remains an island of hope” in South Africa, and also took a swipe at State Security Minister David Mahlobo, arguing that he was failing in his duties.

“Your intelligence services are very weak. It can not be that 27 schools are burnt. It speaks to shortcomings in the system. Every effort must be made to beef up the intelligence services, this is totally unacceptable.”

ANC MP Nomalungelo Gina called for the ruling party to work to protect the education system in Limpopo from further disruption.

“The situation in Vuwani has paralysed the stability in our schools and it is indeed a disaster,” she said.

“Plus or minus 60 000 learners of which 2006 are in grade 12, their rights have been violated and this is a very painful thing to talk of. We must make sure that what we have seen happen in Vuwani, it does not repeat itself in a another area in the country.

Mahlobo said “the phenomenon of burning schools, libraries and university buildings in the name of voicing grievances cannot be tolerated”.

The violence began after the Limpopo High Court at the end of April ruled in favour of the Municipal Demarcation Board against Vuwani residents.

The latter were fighting to have their area reinstated under the Makhado Municipality and not incorporated into the new Malamulele Municipality.

African News Agency