BREAKING NEWS: SABC – Racism allegations rock Hartbeespoort

• ‘On Friday, we want to stop everything and address racism in Hartbeespoort’ – Motape Motokwe, Chairperson of the Harties Shutdown movement.

• The North West government is investigating alleged racial tensions in Hartbeespoort. This follows allegations that Afrikaans-speaking individuals torched properties belonging to black-owned businesses to force them out of the area.

• The Water and Sanitation Department says it’s investigating allegations of racial clashes in Hartbeespoort in the North West province. This followed simmering tensions that saw one of the black-owned business properties razed to ashes recently. Affected business owners claim the incident was racially motivated and have accused some white community members of refusing them the right to do business on the dam’s shoreline.

• Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo says the Hartbeespoort Dam belongs to the government, however, apartheid laws allocated the use of the facility to only a particular race. He adds that there were 99 year leases given to “white privilege” on the basis of the apartheid system.