There has been rioting at Boikhutso in Lichtenburg in the North West after a police vehicle allegedly ran over and killed a child. Two police vans and an ambulance were torched.
Some reports say officers were chasing people who had been selling maize during the lockdown. Others say officers were planning to raid a shebeen.
A police vehicle hit an 8-year old boy from Phola section. It’s confirmed that the boy died instantly on the scene.
Angry residents came in numbers and started pelting stones at two police vans and also set it alight. One ambulance was also torched.
Meanwhile, the Mahikeng Local Municipality in the province says it has been inundated with applications for permits to operate by small business owners. The municipality says small businesses, spaza shops and tuckshop owners, are flocking to their offices for trading permits during the lockdown, despite a call by the municipality to only engage their local councillors.
Local Municipal Spokesperson Jonny Nkwane, “Most of the people who flock into our offices are foreign nationals. They do not listen to radio stations when we communicate with our people. They do not even understand the language we are using. Some of them don’t even know their ward councillors. That’s why they come to the municipality for help.”
