Buffalo City Metro 'stable’ amid EFF national shutdown

Cape Town - The Buffalo City Metro says it has received clean safety bill report in terms of stability in the region during the EFF’s national shutdown on Monday.

The City sought to assure the public that all roads in Buffalo City remained clear and safe for motorists, and the municipality and business were operating normally.

A video on Sunday night showed students aligned with the EFF marching around the streets of East London.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said the City was involved in the safety and security cluster meetings that were being convened by the South African Police Service which were aimed at ensuring that there was order and stability.

He said so far, there had been two arrests with regard to public violence.

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“Measures have been implemented to ensure the safety of residents during the planned and unplanned marches,

“This includes the deployment of police officers being deployed to all major routes including highways, eQonce and East London CBD’s, suburbs and townships,” Ngwenya said.

Ngwenya said the police and BCM have also averted burning plans by confiscating hundreds of tyres that had been placed on the streets last night in areas like Orange Groove, East London’s CBD, Nompumelelo, Mdantsane, Ducats and the Buffalo bypass.

“The security cluster is led by SAPS Major-General Henry Vos and it involves all the law enforcement and traffic agencies in the province, including the Metro,” Ngwenya added.

Meanwhile, the BCM Deputy Executive Mayor councillor Princess Faku visited the venue operations centre and commended the safety and security cluster, urging them to keep a high visibility in order to protect the people and infrastructure of the metro.

Faku added the activation of the venue operations centre was standard procedure that was used for major events or incidents in the metro, such as international cricket matches, the summer season and major conferences. It was not specially convened for the EFF shutdown.

“The metro is availing its personnel from key departments that have a role to play to be part of these meetings and as per norm.

“We will be putting in place plans and protocols that we will be presenting at the safety and security cluster meetings,” Faku said.

Faku said BCM departments were part of the safety and security operations involving Law Enforcement, Traffic, the Fire department, Disaster Management, Health and Environmental Services, Communications, Water, Electricity, Waste Management, and Fleet Management.

“We are not expecting any interruptions to normal services except on the roads where the marches or protests will be held, and these will be monitored very closely by the security cluster,” Faku added.

She urged residents and motorists to heed all official instructions, exercise patience, and avoid routes if the security cluster had advised against using them.

IOL