North West ANC members clash over calls for premier's removal

Police fired stun grenades to separate two ANC groups baying for each other's blood in Rustenburg on Monday.

The two groups - armed with bricks, knobkerries and stones - met in central Rustenburg.

Unhappy ANC members were marching to the Rustenburg municipality to hand over a memorandum to the ANC national executive committee (NEC), calling for the removal of North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo and for his provincial executive committee to be disbanded.

The march was blocked by another ANC group, made up of ANC volunteers who claimed they were protecting the party.

The disgruntled members said the province was becoming more and more corrupt under the watch of Mahumapelo.

"The members of the ANC were marching to hand over a memorandum to the NEC at the Rustenburg municipality, asking them to intervene in the problem facing the province. The march was interrupted and we decided to retreat," said Rocky Malebane-Metsing, an ANC member who participated in the march.

He said those who had vast interest in the ongoing corruption in the province, picked up groups of people from several townships, gave them ANC T-shirts and bused them in to block the march.

Malebane-Metsing said the march was applied for and approved.

The two groups threw bricks, bottles and stones over the police in an attempt to reach their targets. The police fired stun grenades to separate the two groups.

No injuries were reported.

One man from the volunteer group, who was armed with a knobkerrie, attacked a local radio journalist, Bennet Monanyane of Mafisa FM, while he was filing his story live. He accused him of feeding an inaccurate report.

"I had just started filing when this man said there was no application and accused me of in accurate reporting. In my copy I never mention whether the march was applied for or not. He the chase me wielding a knobkerrie."

Monanyane was not hurt in the subsequent scuffle with the man.

The disgruntled group returned to the taxi rank without handing over their memorandum. 

Source: News24