Pretoria - The Gauteng Provincial Government has condemned the illegal march by the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), after receiving reports of incidents of looting by members on Tuesday.
According to media reports, thousands of schoolchildren took part in the march in solidarity with Malamulele pupils - who have not been able to go to school due to violent service delivery protests by the community in the area, in Limpopo.
“Whilst anyone reserves the right to demonstrate, picket or march to government, this should be done within the constraints of the law,” the Gauteng Education Department said on Tuesday.
Cosas members marched to the Office of the Premier and the Gauteng Department of Education on the day.
The department said demonstrators met at the Johannesburg Library Gardens and moved on to the Office of the Premier, then to the Department of Community Safety and Education.
“The department received reports of incidents of looting by members of Cosas in today’s [Tuesday] march, signifying a break of trust between the Gauteng government, the South African Informal Traders Forum and Cosas,” the department said.
Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the provincial government is extremely disappointed that Cosas staged an illegal march and went against the agreement that future marches will be conducted in a peaceful and legal manner, without any interference with the hawkers trading in the streets.
The MEC had previously convened a meeting with the leadership of Cosas, following reports of looting in stalls of hawkers by members of Cosas during a march, late last year.
The leadership of Cosas apologised unconditionally to the South African Informal Traders Forum for the conduct of their members during this march and assured them that it will never happen again.
“We will seek an urgent meeting with the leadership of Cosas to condemn this illegal behaviour and find solutions that will ensure that this sort of behaviour never happens again,” said MEC Lesufi. - SAnews.gov.za
