More than 30 suspects who were arrested during the violent unrests last week are appearing at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
The suspects aged between 18 and 72 are facing a string of charges. This is for their alleged roles in the public violence, looting and burning of infrastructure. Almost 700 people in total have been arrested across Gauteng.
Over the next three days, about 200 suspects will be appearing before the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. They are facing charges ranging from public violence, theft, malicious damage to property, the contravention of the Disaster Management Act and robbery.
Several suspects, who have already appeared, were granted bail ranging from R1000 to R5 000 each. Their cases were postponed to various dates later this month for further investigation.
Calm restored in Tshwane after violence, looting
The City of Tshwane says calm has been restored to Pretoria after violence and looting last week. The city deployed more law enforcement teams at the weekend.
It says the 100 people that were arrested in connection with the violence have appeared in court.
Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor of Tshwane Sipho Stuurman: says: “Throughout the weekend there were no reports of disruptions, criminality and looting. This is an indication that the security situation in Tshwane is stable with our law enforcement teams maintaining high visibility.”
The teams have been deployed to various locations with a special focus on protecting shopping centres and keeping a close watch on volatile areas such as Mamelodi where there were reported incidents of criminality and looting previously.
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa was in KwaZulu-Natal over the weekend to assess the damage caused by looters.
He issued a stern warning to those behind instigating the criminal acts seen in both KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Ramaphosa says instigators will be arrested:
