Herman Mashaba won't bow to ANC 'thugs'

A furious Herman Mashaba says he will not be intimidated by "ANC thuggery" after a bloody showdown for the Johannesburg mayor at a community meeting in Midrand.

Midrand High School hall turned into a war zone on Tuesday , with chairs, water bottles and papers hurled around.

Several people were hurt.

Ward 112 chairman Andrew Osmond was hit on the back of his head with a brick. He was concussed and taken to hospital.

EFFchief whip Sepetlele Raseruthe said a party member had a head gash and was taken to hospital.

Mashaba said the City of Johannesburg would lay criminal charges against ANC councillors who, he said, "violently disrupted" the proceedings.

• Mashaba is lying‚ says ANC on bloody Midrand clashThe ANC on Wednesday denied that its members were to blame for a bloody showdown that broke out at a community meeting held in Midrand on Tuesday night.

"Disgracefully, this attack on our democracy was led by ANC councillors," Mashaba said, identifying 10 who had attended the meeting by name.

Raseruthe said the ANC members arrived with the sole purpose of disrupting the meeting.

"They attacked us. They wouldn't even allow the meeting to start and they sang when the speaker tried to address them.

"This was the third time that they have done this," Raseruthe added.

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Paul Mashatile said he was shocked at how the meeting "descended into chaos".

• ‘It was a war zone’ – EFF leader on Mashaba meetingThe ANC members who were present at an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) summit in Midrand arrived with the sole purpose of disrupting the proceedings‚ an official of the Economic Freedom Fighters said on Wednesday.

The ANC denied that its members were to blame.

"We want to place it on record that no ANC member incited violence at the meeting," said Jolidee Matongo, ANC spokesman in the Johannesburg region.

"It is EFF and DA members clad in party regalia who started the disruption," he alleged.

- Additional reporting by Shenaaz Jamal