Sosh residents vow to disrupt municipality until they hear from Williams
The residents have been protesting in front of the Tshwane metro offices since Monday waiting for Mayor Randall Williams to address them.
Not even rubber bullets could deter a group of protesters from preventing municipal workers from getting into their offices in Soshanguve Block FF for this entire week.
The protesters marched to the offices on Monday demanding a low flat rate for rates and taxes, to buy electricity directly from Eskom and pay less for water and sanitation.
The group led municipal employees out of the office and they haven’t been able to work since as the protest continues.
Williams sent social development and community services MMC Peggy de Bruin to listen to the demands, but the residents sent her packing.
Angela Makhubela, a spokesperson for the protesters, said residents felt that their municipality bills were too high and went up every month.
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Pensioners are unable to pay because the grants they depend on didn’t rise that quickly.
“Our elderly are the ones paying these bills. They can’t afford these bills on their R1 980 Sassa grant,” she said.
Makhubela said residents wanted to buy electricity directly from Eskom because buying it from the metro was “more expensive”.
She claimed that they haven’t received any municipal bills since 2020 and the metro simply deducted money when they bought prepaid electricity units.
“We don’t even know how much we owe. We don’t have receipts. We are just paying and the bills are estimated and when we ask about it, they tell us that the municipality owes Eskom and they don’t have papers,” she said.
She added that they’ve been looking for answers without luck.
Makhubela claimed the mayor has promised to address them, but he hasn’t given them a date and time.
According to TMPD Spokesperson senior superintendent Isaac Mahamba metro police tried to negotiate with the protesters to make way inside the municipality. Their attempts were unsuccessful as the protesters started to throw stones and bottles at officials.
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“We had to use rubber bullets to disperse the unruly crowd.”
A stampede ensued as protesters tried to flee.
“After a while two protesters came to us seeking medical attention as they got hurt in the stampede. We called an ambulance for them but after a few minutes they indicated that they will go to the local clinic for assistance,” he said.
He said the metro police will continue to be on site to monitor the situation until everything was back to normal.
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