A police officer was seriously injured while trying to protect a substation in Northdale from being damaged on Thursday night.
It is alleged that the police officer, Cameron Marion, from Mountain Rise Police Station was attacked with pangas and stoned by Nkululeko Informal settlement dwellers.
According to the local ward councillor, Lucky Naicker, the residents at the boarder of Regina Road in Northdale, started burning tyres and closing the road just after 10am yesterday morning.
He said that he went to the community to engage with them and found out their issues.
Naicker added the community were angry because they have been without lights for more than a week and wanted to know when the power would be restored.
“In the morning, it wasn’t so bad. I told them that they need to understand that we all have similar issues of not having power but the lights are coming on slowly and they need to be patient,” he said.
He added the angry community dismissed what he had to say and accused ward councillors and the municipality of neglecting them because they are black people.
“They pulled out the race card, saying that we are only assisting the Indians first and neglecting them because they are black. They threatened me. But eventually they put the fire off and allowed the traffic to flow.”
Naicker said in the evening, the community went on a rampage and decided to demolish the substation which had caught on fire.
He added the community then resorted to closing the road with burning tyres, trees and bricks.
He said they also stoned a number of vehicles which were passing by on the road.
“They then marched towards the substation. There is a policeman who lives nearby. He saw this crowd going to the substation and he fired a shot which I think hit one of the guys on the leg. The crowd rushed towards him and hit him with pangas and stones. They hit him on the back of his head and he got a couple of gashes on his head and he ended up in hospital,” said Naicker.
He said on Friday morning, a municipal team was sent clean-up the road, however, the community threatened them not to clean.
Naicker said that since the municipal team is going to be off for Christmas, this meant that no one will clean the road until next week.
“The sad thing is that electricity is coming on, gradually and it’s so hard to explain to people that there are a number of areas which still don’t have power as well. Some of the community members in the informal settlement do understand, but some are just too frustrated and angry,” he said.
Naicker said at the moment, they are hoping that Marion would get better in hospital.
Meanwhile, social media has been buzzing since the news of Marion’s attack with residents wishing him a speedy recovery.