By Moipone Malefane

The failure of the police to maintain a full-time presence in the troubled Namahali township gave youths an opportunity to vandalise property in the area.

As the riots in the Free State township entered their third day on Tuesday, youths continued to loot shops, prevent children from going to school and blockade entrances to the township.

They also set alight the house of one of the councillors, Thandi Hadebe.

'We will continue to loot and vandalise these shops'

The police spent most of the time camping outside the police station in the town of Frankfort and had to be phoned each time the situation got out of control in the township.

At the time, National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi was holding a meeting with the provincial police commissioner about the situation and did not address the media.

The Star has reliably learnt that Selebi was annoyed and wanted provincial police chiefs to explain why they had failed to calm the situation, which erupted on Sunday night.

Resident Mpho Moloi, 66, also blamed the police for not controlling the situation.

At 10am on Tuesday, youths started burning tyres in the streets and then began vandalising a Namahali supermarket owned by SABC political reporter Sophie Mokwena. The crowd removed furniture, threw it into the street and set it alight.

The rioting started when allegations surfaced that the ANC had already nominated councillors for the local government elections. The community complained that the current councillors should not be re-elected as they had failed to develop the area and many youths were unemployed.

"We want to elect our own councillors," said disgruntled resident Dineo Khumalo.

She said their intention was to vandalise all the shops belonging to those empowered by the council who had received tenders. "We will continue to loot and vandalise these shops to ensure that they also suffer like us," Khumalo said.

In the afternoon, the police arrived at the scene in Nyala armoured vehicles and tried to disperse the crowd. Youths pelted them with stones, and the police shot back with rubber bullets, arresting a further 29 people.

• This article was originally published on page 2 of The Star on August 17, 2005

Published on the Web by IOL on 2005-08-17 07:06:00