Buses for scrap as Mamelodi cashes in on #TshwaneProtests

22 June 2016 - 16:08 By Neo Goba And Penwell Dlamini

Residents of Mamelodi East are cashing in on the buses that have been burnt by protesters. Twenty buses were set alight on Monday night during protest action against the announcement of ANC mayoral candidate Thoko Didiza for the upcoming local government elections. Mothers‚ fathers and children as young as five years old took the day off from work and school on Wednesday to feast on the resultant scrap metal and parts next to Stanza Bopabe Clinic‚ using hammers to "unlock the value" amid the destruction. A resident said he had already cashed in over R2‚000 since he started stripping the parts of the burnt buses. "We've been here since midnight because money never sleeps."My brother‚ this is business for us. The police tried to stop us but they eventually realised there was no point‚" said the father of two boys. He spoke on condition of anonymity.The violent protests have been ongoing since Monday‚ when tyres were burnt in the streets of Mamelodi and Atteridgeville as protesters demanded that current mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa be chosen by the ANC as its candidate to stand for a third term.Watch them in action:..

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