SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - A group of opportunistic looters caused chaos in Meiringspoort on Tuesday 17 September after a truck transporting powdered milk overturned, and Public Order Police (Pops) officers from George were eventually sent to do crowd control.

According to Herman van der Walt, the farm manager of Varkenskraal, it didn't take long for nearby residents to swarm to the scene after the truck overturned in front of his gate. 

People quickly began loading their car boots with anything they could grab from the truck.

This, and the lack of police assistance, allegedly eventually led to a stun grenade thrown at him and his son later that night.

The truck, heading towards Beaufort West, lost control and toppled over early on Tuesday afternoon. 

Eyewitness André Nel said the truck wasn't speeding, but suspects a shift in the load caused the accident. The driver and passenger were uninjured but shaken.

However, Van der Walt said things got out of hand quickly when freebooters seized the moment. 

"People were parking their cars all along the road and when they could not find a place to park, they broke open our locked gate and pulled into our property," he said.

He called the De Rust and Oudtshoorn police stations, but they were slow to respond, and the officers who arrived did little to stop the looting.

"I asked the police to remove the people and their cars from our property, but they didn't do anything and looters flooded our entrance with their vehicles."

Later that evening Pops members arrived and dispersed the ransacking crowd using stun grenades. 

But, according to Van der Walt who was on the opposite side of the road from the crowd, one of the members threw a stun grenade in his direction. His young son was in his bakkie behind him.

"I asked them why they threw the grenade in my direction as the looters were in the opposite direction, and the officer answered saying the looters were coming towards me to attack me. There was no one near me. First, they refuse to help me to remove the people from private property and then they throw a stun grenade at me."

Southern Cape police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies said the allegation that police did not attend to the initial accident is unfounded.

"De Rust police attended to the accident earlier. Pops members were only sent as reinforcements," he said.

An eyewitness who drove past the incident said what she saw was "truly unbelievable". She even saw pedestrians in pyjamas hitchhiking to the truck. "Hundreds of them. When we got to the scene there were rows and rows of cars waiting," she said.

Spies said a public violence docket has been opened following the incident.

"Public Order Police members were deployed to the area to conduct crowd management after a group gathered along the N12. The group became unruly and police used stun grenades to disperse the group. No case was opened regarding the alleged looting," he said.

He also did not comment on the stun grenade that was allegedly thrown at Van Der Walt.

The truck overturned early on Tuesday afternoon.

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