In retaliation with the City of Ekurhuleni’s reblocking programme, angry Vusumuzi shack dwellers and sympathisers of affected stand owners, took to the streets on Wednesday last week, where they barricaded all major main roads linking the area of Vusumuzi with other sections of the township. This is after the residents could not come to any mutual understanding with the city over the ongoing reblocking saga.
During the protest, the residents vowed to take their fight to the Public Protector.
“As we all know, the Public Protector is coming to Tembisa in August. We must all go and fill up the Rabasotho Community Hall and report this matter to her. The Public Protector is our last hope,” said Mahlatsi Dlamini, a resident and leader of the revolution.
They accused the municipality of not draining their toilets as per its weekly mandate just because they are opposed to reblocking.
“On top of this, we had no electricity and water supply for the past four days,” he went on.
In 2017 the City came up with the reblocking programme, which came with the promise of a better life and development for residents living in informal settlements such as Vusumuzi and Emandleni.
Even though the City has now and again retaliated the fact that reblocking is a programme aimed at ensuring that all informal settlement residents enjoy dignified habitation with decent sanitation, clean running water, better roads and electricity supply, but residents who are supposed beneficiaries aren’t happy with the manner this programme is handled.
“What really makes us unhappy about reblocking is the manner in which our leaders and the municipality are treating shack dwellers. They want to dictate things to us. They want us to agree with them on everything they are saying and doing here. And that can’t be right because at the end of day, it is us, the residents, who will live with this problem forever,” said Dlamini.
Vusumuzi informal settlement was founded in 1995 and residents are complaining that they have been neglected by government for years.
“We have been living without basic service delivery. There have been no electricity, water and sewer system. Can you believe that it has been over 20 years into our democracy but we are still using the bucket system in this section?” pointed out Dlamini.
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