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'Joburg council disrupted by undemocratic ANC thuggery' – DA

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The chamber deserted and documents strewn all over the floor following the disruption. Picture: Twitter/ANCJoburgRegion
The chamber deserted and documents strewn all over the floor following the disruption. Picture: Twitter/ANCJoburgRegion

“The ANC in Joburg has nothing to offer but chaos and violence,” the Democratic Alliance said following a disruption of the Johannesburg council meeting today by members of the ANC.

A group called the Johannesburg Social Movement marched through the CBD early this afternoon with placards reading “Herman Mashaba dictator”, “Mashaba serves the interest of whites”, “Mashaba is a joke” and “#8000 jobs”.

Protesters stormed the council chambers where a city council sitting was proceeding and vandalised the building and littered it with rubbish.

The group said the march was to protest against Mashaba’s decision to scrap the Jozi@work programme and to hand over a memorandum.

The Jozi@Work programme is a job creation programme that the City of Joburg launched in September 2014. It aims to create opportunities for communities in the delivery of municipal services in their own neighbourhoods.

The council meeting sat to table its adjustment budget, which the DA said the ANC is opposed to.

The DA also accused the opposition party of being behind the protest and said the incident was “an assault on our democracy”.

“The DA-led government of mayor Herman Mashaba will not be deterred and will continue to press forward in passing the adjustment budget,” the DA said.

City Mayor Herman Mashaba said he planned to lay charges against the movement for the damage they caused.

Meanwhile, the DA-led administrations in Nelson Mandela Bay, Tshwane and Joburg all passed their first mid-financial-year adjustment budgets. The DA won power in these metros in last year’s local elections.

The DA congratulated their compatriots for gaining “momentum in turning around the rot left by the ANC.”

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