Ward 100 residents took to the street on June 29 protesting for stands and service delivery issues in the area.
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The disgruntled residents of Freedom Square, Moriting, Snow-Flake and Sethokga barricaded Reverend RTJ Namane Drive from Moriting Section to Hospital View with burning tyres, bricks and waste at about 3am preventing motorists to pass through the road and at the same time waiting for members from Ekurhuleni executive Mayor’s office to attend to their grievances.
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According to one of the march organisers, Frans Sethoa, residents want the local municipality to get them land to start building houses for themselves because they’ve lost hope of waiting for RDP houses.
“We feel it is better if the government can find us the land where we can build houses on our own because there is too much corruption in the allocation of housing in Tembisa,” said Sethoa.
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Sethoa said from 1992, Freedom Square residents have been residing under high voltage power cables, meaning they will never be supplied with temporary electricity like other informal settlements.
“We are tired of living in inhuman conditions with no development. We are also South Africans and as much as we have voted for the ruling governance, today we are claiming the right of our votes. We deserve to be treated like other people occupying houses and having proper sanitation, electricity and roads,” added Sethoa.
The residents claimed that they’ve submitted two memorandums of grievances to the Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor’s office on January 25 and again on May 29 but to no avail.
“Nobody responds to our memorandums. We did not send memorandum only but also sent several letters to follow up – again no one cares about us. Even our local Clr Mabotha Phokwane, does not care about us.
“He does not attend our meetings. In fact, he is dividing members of the community not to be a united front because some people in the area are working for various contractors and others are denied an opportunity to benefit from new developments in the ward,” explained Sethoa.
He further said it is winter and shacks are very cold.
“When it is really cold, we are tempted to prepare fires but we are afraid to cause shack fires in the informal settlement,” said Sethoa.
Sethoa emphasised that residents in Oakmoor Extension 9 are suffering from high municipal bills and residents are being evicted constantly from their houses.
“We are fed up with seeing our people getting evicted from their homes. Our residents cannot continue to live under such oppressing situations while we are under the democratically elected government. Let the people’s lives come first,” expressed Sethoa
Local ward Clr Mabotha Phokwane said some community leaders at Freedom Square do not respond when he calls community meetings. “I call community meetings every month but they are people who do not come and later organise their own meetings. I am aware of issues of stands and other services. The community wrote several memorandums of grievances to Council and I also have those memorandums. I do not authorise lands or stands. I am there to listen to their concerns and address them to Council. Our people need to understand and learn to work with us as councillors,” added Phokwane.
Members of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) and Tembisa SAPS worked around the clock to control and maintain peace in the area.
At the time, Tembisan left the scene at around 10am. Nobody from the Mayor’s offices came to address the Ward 100 residents.
The Tembisan has sent a request for comment to the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s communication department on Friday, June 30 at 4:12 pm, with a request comment by Monday, July 3 at 4 pm. And again, a comment request was also sent to the Ekurhuleni Executive Mayoral’s spokesperson Gugu Ndima on Monday July 3 at 12h25 pm, with a request for July 4 at 10 am.
Nno comments has been received.
