Pretoria coloured community ‘feels neglected’
“We are at the bottom of the food chain, both the ANC and DA government have failed.”
The coloured community of Tshwane and Johannesburg protested peacefully at Tshwane house on Friday.
The protestors came from Eersterust, Westbury, Ennerdale, Eldorado Park, Riverlea and Claremont.
They expressed how unimpressed they are with the government which they said keeps side-lining them from job opportunities, service delivery and skills development programmes among other things.
They walked from Freedom Park to hand over their memorandum to Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga, who was said to be unavailable due to other commitments.
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MMC Mike Mkhari accepted the memo on his behalf, which angered the protestors even worse.
“If it were white or black people protesting, he would have made sure he was available. He knew all along that we were supposed to hand him our memorandum of demands. We also pay rates and taxes but we are being marginalised,” said one protestor, Sharon Kleinbooi.
The protestors shouted in unity that Solly must fall and that ‘genoeg is genoeg’.
“Ons is gatvol,” they said.
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The protestors, under the banner of the Gauteng Shut-Down Co-ordinating Committee (GSCC) and the Eersterust Action Organization (EAO), said it was high time Msimanga was held accountable for his “blatant lies, dishonesty, disrespect and a nonchalant attitude”.
“The motion of no confidence in him a few months ago was fully justified, which unfortunately failed because of political expediency,” said Ricardo Terry one of the organisers.
The protestors said they have been “at the bottom of the food chain” since the ANC government took over.
“The ANC government has failed us and the DA is doing the same,” said Terry.
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The protestors said the mayor must address unemployment in their communities which is very high, poor health and school facilities as well as equally distribute houses to different races in the country.
“Our people have been waiting for houses since 1995,” Terry added.
Leticia James said the government does nothing for them.
“We are fighting for our right and for our voices to be heard. There is no development in our communities, our children resort to drugs because the education system has failed them. They have taken Afrikaans out of our schools and that is the language our children speak and understands besides English,” she said.
The protestors are planning to protest in Johannesburg next Friday.
They gave the mayor five working days to respond to their memorandum.
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