Luka youth raised their anger and frustration


By Luka concerned resident (Luka)

On the 2nd of March 2012, in Luka village it was not an ordinary morning like, any other, as people woke up to a shocking incident of chanting of struggle songs outside their homes. The chanting came from the angry youth of Luka village who were tired of their unemployment issues not being taken seriously by the Royal Bafokeng Administration and the Impala mine management. They believe they should be given priority in terms of employment. The youth embarked on an a march demonstration which expressed anger and frustration, ended up barricading the railway line between Phokeng and Luka with burning tyres and tree branches with the aim to stop commuters from going to work. Some community members were threatened and forced to take part in the gathering. The local Schools were left in fear as protesters gate crashed the schools with intentions of forcing teachers to join the march.
One community member said he was on his way to work when suddenly he was approached by a group of protesters; the police van came to his rescue as he feared being forced to join the march. It all ended with 13 participants being arrested and charged for participating in illegal gathering, public violence, and some of them were innocent members who were forced to join the march. Those 13 Luka community members appeared in court on the 8th March 2012 for bail hearing and got released on free bail. The case is still to be head in the Bafokeng regional court.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sanitary sewer havoc in Marikana Wes

Image
TAKATSO TONTSI (Marikana) Sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from the house and come and commercial building to disposal or treatment. The system of sewers is called sewage. The sewage system in Marikana is a problem, now that there is water everywhere on the streets from the sewers of the houses. They are houses with blocked and burst pipes, so the water flows to the streets. This sewage is water is a water carrying waste in solution that is intended to be removed from a community. It is more than 99% of water and also contains physical condition, chemical constituents, and bacterial organism. This solution smells very bad as it contains human waste and germs from the bacteria. On the 13 th of June I spoke to Mrs Mphahlele about her neighbours drowning yard. “Her yard might be a dam of sewage water, but the smell goes a long way. She as reported this problem at the municipality offices and they promised to help...
Read more

Over-population in Ikemeleng.

Image
STEVEN RAMOKHULA (Ikemeleng)  When mines don’t provide with accommodation, then Ikemeleng should provide. Ikemeleng is a mining community in Kroondal just seven kiolometres outside Rustenburg. It is in the centre of five mining companies which are Xstrata, Samancor, Lanxess, Aquarius and Anglo American Platinum. One of the main issues facing the community of Ikemeleng is over population. The surrounding mining companies play a very big role in the increasing population within Ikemeleng. People come from different parts of the continent and country to seek employment. We have people from Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana and nationwide. All these people came to seek employment to improve their standards of living. Most of these people are attracted by mining activities taking place around Ikemeleng community. Floods of job-seekers flock towards the community because of the surrounding mines. Every month the population withi...
Read more

Ikemeleng's Illegal electricity connections

Image
BUTI BOTOPELA (Ikemeleng) Question is why are people using illegal connected electricity? The users and suppliers do not seem to know the consequences and danger of using illegal electricity. This illegal power connection is unfairly distributed, some people are connected and others are not, it’s all about favours and who can afford a monthly R50 fee paid to the supplier. The community supports the use of illegal power as they believe it will force or push the authority to install electricity in Ikemeleng. The community of Ikemeleng has lived in the dark for years and lived on empty promises with no service delivery at all. The power is from the hostel built by Angburnes who accommodates his employees working at Kroondal Spar, and other form the community Apollo lights which mostly supplies businesses such as taverns, bottle stores, butcheries, and tuck-shops. The wire are loosely connected and not dug in deep, and this is dangerous to people and animals especially dur...
Read more