Ward Councillor among those arrested for blocking off N2 Highway ahead of Easter Weekend

Hankey police detectives nabbed two more suspects following a protest action on the N2 highway a day before Good Friday.

"The two men, aged 42 and 46 years old, one of them a ward councillor, were nabbed on Sunday after a video footage taken during a protest showed the actions of the two men," described police spokesperson, Sergeant Majola Nkohli.

"The arrest of the two men is the result of the ongoing investigation after a group of about 200 protesters, went amok and blocked N2 near Thornhill with burning tyres, cement blocks and tree branches on Thursday, 29 March 2018."

He said that the two men, aged 42 and 46, will appear in the Patensie Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, on charges of tampering with essential infrastructure (Act No. 18 of 2015).

"This arrest brings the number of arrests since the protest action to four."

He said that police can confirm that few other people are going to be arrested soon.

"The first two suspects that were nabbed on that Thursday, Bongani David (31) and Nkululeko Komna (43), were released on R500 bail each, after they appeared in the Hankey Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 3 April 2018," Capt Nkohli said.

"Their case was postponed to Thursday, 17 May 2018 for further investigation." 

Humansdorp Acting Cluster Commander, Colonel Simon Swarts, warned residents to be responsible during protest actions, and said: “People need to be aware that the burning of tyres on public roads during protest actions constitutes contravention of Act No. 18 of 2015, and any person who is found guilty for the offence may be sentenced to imprisonment for a period of up to 30 years, or in the case of a company a fine not exceeding R100 million.

"The purpose of this Act is to ensure that it addresses high incidence of crimes affecting service delivery to the public, such as theft of cables, water meters, bridge railings, manhole covers and including damages to infrastructure such as public roads."