FURTHER protest action against poor service delivery in Birch Acres could be on the cards as it seems the metro would not meet the community’s demand to respond within seven days.
A member of the mayoral committee, Clr Makhosazana Maluleka, met with the community on Friday and received a memorandum after violent protests broke out around Birch Acres Mall and in Sophia town, a nearby squatter area, earlier that morning.
In the memorandum the community of Birch Acres demanded a school, library and clinic. The Sophiatown informal settlement insisted on electricity and flushing toilets.
“The municipality will respond to the community’s demands within 14 days,” said the mayor’s spokesman, Zweli Dlamini.
“We are happy that the protest has been brought to a halt. The community peacefully called off the protest after we had an engagement with them. We are, however, still going to meet the leadership,” Dlamini said, adding that the demand for a school in the area would be escalated to the provincial department of education.
When the crowd heard this, they screamed they wanted action in seven days and threatened that protests would get more aggressive if their demands were not met within seven days.
In the memorandum, the community demanded that the executive mayor of Ekurhuleni, Clr Mondli Ngungubele, took the following steps:
Investigate why the land earmarked for public use was rezoned and sold for commercial purposes;
Engage Gauteng MEC of Education, Panyaza Lesufi, and Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, to prioritise the building of school infrastructure in the next medium term budget.
“We demand an immediate stop to further developments in the area until the school, clinic and library issues are addressed. This means no development until a site for these basic human rights issues is identified and budget allocated for that purpose,” the memorandum read.
Residents demanded that Sophiatown be developed as a formal settlement with proper streets, sanitation, electricity and houses. They also demanded an explanation as to why they were being policed by the new Tembisa South Police Station without consultation.
DA ward councillor, Johann Jordaan, said: “For more than five years this community’s needs, that have been the focus point during Friday’s protests, been forwarded to the metro and provincial government, either by myself or by me by means of the IDP processes or petitions.
“These needs were also raised by the community at various Mayoral Imbizos the past years without being delivered on or only partly been attended to. Most of the needs raised, were totally ignored,” Jordaan said.
“I believe the residents of these two areas have all reason to be unhappy with the service delivery they receive from the ANC-led government. However, I would like to commend the way the protest went and that the majority of protesters restrained themselves from taking the violence route on the day.”
Despite freezing conditions, hundreds of residents gathered at Birch Acres Mall early on Friday morning. The situation took a turn for the worst when Sophiatown residents went on the rampage, blocking Tembisa roads with rocks and setting tyres alight.
School children were turned away by law enforcement officers and Express had to park five blocks away because of all the makeshift roadblocks made of rocks, tree branches and burning tyres.
The protesters were noisy and chanted when Khosi Twala, MMC for health and social development. spoke to them but community leaders calmed them down.
Twelve people were arrested for public violence during the service delivery protest, said metro police spokesman, Chief Supt Wilfred Kgasago.
Watch a video of the protest here:
