Angry Kagiso residents took to the streets on 3 November at about 6pm and made a busy road leading to the township impassable for their pleas to be heard.
“Children crossing the roads are knocked down by taxis and speeding motorists” — Sipho Nkuna, Kagiso resident.
At the scene the next day residents explained to the NEWS that they wanted speed humps in Jacobs and Geba Streets.
“We want our children to be safe, but it seems that the municipality does not care about us as service delivery in Kagiso is nonexistent,” says Sipho Nkuna.
He says the protest was fuelled by an incident recently in which a motorcyclist hit a pedestrian, and that they have been complaining about the roads for a long time.
“Children crossing the roads are knocked down by taxis and speeding motorists.”
Further investigations revealed that most of the residents feel the same way.
Jeffrey Naby says many accidents happen on that stretch of road and claims that traffic officials never are seen patrolling and safeguarding the road.
“Instead we see them relaxing in their cars.”
Another issue that they are facing is the large number of potholes in their roads.
The NEWS noticed that some traffic lights were damaged during the protest and vehicle drivers who tried to by-pass it by driving on the pavement had stones and sticks thrown at them.
NEWS reporter Jacobus Myburgh also was threatened by the stone throwers, and protesters grabbed him when he took photos of them.
DA Ward Councillor De Waal Venter spoke to the residents at the scene.
He says that the protest ended the same day as he managed to have a meeting with the executive committee where they resolved some issues and calmed the residents.
This was the second time in three months that Kagiso residents protested for speed humps.
In July they held a peaceful protest in the hope that the municipality would hear their cries and intervene by erecting speed humps to prevent speeding motorists from causing accidents on the road.
The municipality erected speed humps in that same week.
