Eighteen people have been hospitalized in an altercation and shooting at an ANC general meeting in Limpopo over the weekend.
The shooting took place on Saturday, when an altercation broke out at a branch general meeting in Waterberg, Lephalale.
Two people were shot, and another 16 others were injured in the incident. Police spokesperson Brigadier Mojalefa Mojapelo confirmed local police were investigating two cases of attempted murder, assault, malicious damage to property, and public violence.
“Two people were reportedly shot and injured, others assaulted, and vehicles damaged. The two people who were allegedly shot have been taken to hospital,” he said.
Ward 12 (Ga Seleka) Lephalale Sub region, two ppl were shot & 16 others injured during an ANC BGM meeting. Apparently Jack Maeko hooligans came with pangas, machetes, knobkerries to intimidate & harm people pic.
According to ANC regional spokesperson Matome Taueatsoala, the “criminals followed their victims to the Witpoort Hospital, where doctors and nurses were threatened”.
“The ANC in Waterberg is surprised that machetes, pangas, knobkerries, and other sharp objects are able to find their way into ANC gatherings a foreign practice that collides with the organization’s tradition and protocols,” he said.
“What is more concerning, is that this type of violence also affects women, as some of them even had to run for cover, as their cars were pelted by stones, by this angry lynch mob.
These acts of thuggery and hooliganism have no space in our communities, let alone within the ANC, which is supposed to be a model of discipline and an example of good democratic ethos.
Following the shooting, meetings in the region had been called off, said Taueatsoala.
This has compelled the ANC in Waterberg to call off all its activities in the Lephalale Sub-Region, until security is stabilized.
The ANC is worried that, despite the perpetrators of these heinous acts being identified, there has been little or no arrests in most instances.
This has the potential to turn the Lephalale Sub-Region into a hotspot for political violence in the province.
The police said a 41-year-old suspect had been arrested and a 9 mm pistol recovered.