Police detectives nabbed two more suspects following a protest action on N2 a day before Good Friday. The two men aged 42 and 46 one of them a ward councilor were nabbed yesterday after a video footage taken during a protest showed the actions of the two men. Two male suspects aged between 31and 32 have been arrested and charged for tampering with essential infrastructure and are expected to appear at Hankey Magistrate’s court tomorrow.
These arrests follow after a service delivery protest that happened on Sunday, 8 April 2018, where police detectives arrested two more suspects after watching a video footage taken on the day of the protest showed the actions of the two men.
The arrest of the two men is the result of the ongoing investigation after a group of about 200 protesters, went amok and blocked N2 near Thornhill with burning tyres, cement blocks and tree branches on Thursday, 29 March 2018. The two men aged 42 and 46 will appear in the Patensie Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 10 April 2018 on charges of tampering with essential infrastructure (Act No. 18 of 2015). This arrest brings the number of arrests since the protest action to four. Police can confirm that few other people are going to be arrested soon. The two suspects that were nabbed on Thursday, 29 March 2018, Bongani David (31) and Nkululeko Komna (43) were released on R500 bail each, after they appeared in the Hankey Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 3 April 2018. Their case was postponed to Thursday, 17 May 2018 for further investigation.
Humansdorp Acting Cluster Commander, Colonel Simon Swarts warned residents to be responsible during protest actions, and said: “People need to be aware that the burning of tyres on public roads during protest actions constitutes contravention of Act No. 18 of 2015, and any person who is found guilty for the offence may be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of up to 30 years, or in the case of a company a fine not exceeding R100 million. The purpose of this Act is to ensure that it addresses the high incidence of crimes affecting service delivery to the public, such as theft of cables, water meters, bridge railings, manhole covers and including damages to infrastructure such as public roads