Members of the Hammanskraal African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) today intercepted attempts of looting in the township and restored order after small groups around the Hammanskraal CBD were starting to gather and positioning themselves to start the looting.
Mr Fortune Mathabathe of the ANCYL said they are abreast with the political developments in the country that followed the arrest of former President Jacko Zuma.
“We have witnessed the steady deterioration of the political climate that started in KwaZulu Natal leading to certain parts of the country being rendered ungovernable. This is accompanied by pockets of violence under the #ZumaUnrest that started as a political strike but later turned into looting.
“We took it upon ourselves to prevent acts of criminality from prevailing in our township because we can take care of ourselves and as a result, there is no need to deploy the SANDF in Hammanskraal,” he said.
Mr Mathabathe said as the youth formation of the ANC, their responsibility is to lead everyone including the police. “We are not doing the work of the police, we are doing the work of the ANC,” added Mr Mathabathe.
He said what they were doing was to protect the infrastructure against criminal acts because if it collapses, there will be massive job losses and lead to the devastating collapse of the local township economy.
The League earlier issued a statement calling on all nine Branches of the ANCYL in the Hammanskraal Zone to be on standby and ensure that no infrastructure is vandalized, no tires are burnt, and that all businesses operate as normal. They called on residents to report all activities that threatened to cause the disorder.
“We will not destroy or own infrastructure and township to settle narrow political scores,” the statement read.
