Home

No place is a no-go area in SA: DA

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Democratic Alliance (DA) leaders say there is not a single place in South Africa that is a no-go area for the party. This is after party leader Mmusi Maimane’s visit to a housing project in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria turned violent.

A group of community members armed with knobkerries and sjamboks confronted Maimane and his entourage and a scuffle ensued.

Police fired stun grenades to break up the groups and no one was injured.

City of Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga says it cannot be that on Freedom Day some people are told they are not welcomed in some areas.

“We’re just seeing six people who just arrived in a car with knobkerries and all of that… sjamboks and saying that the DA is not welcomed in this particular area. On Freedom Day, we can never ever have areas that are declared as no-go areas. The thing is, we moved away from this particular area initially in the morning, and we had said to them that we don’t want any violence because they initially claimed that they are having a soccer tournament. But you can see there is nothing happening there, and now we wanted to come and inspect some of the houses. When we came here they say ‘No, you are not welcome here.'”

Meanwhile, Maimane has called for calm and urged DA supporters to exercise restraint.

“Let us pursue peace because that is what Freedom Day is about. People fought in 1994, people were expecting people to kill people in 1994. Why should we kill people in 2018? We must be peaceful at this point and I want to thank the police for being here. Thank the Tshwane Metro Police for being there.”

 

Click below for more on Freedom Day: 

 

 

Author

MOST READ