Eersterust stable after violent start to week
Everything has gone back to normal in the area but reasons for the protest remain unknown.
The violent protest that brought Eersterust to a standstill yesterday has come to an end.
On August 12, Eersterust experienced a chaotic day of protests that escalated into violence.
Protest action began in the early hours of the morning and saw residents blockading roads with burning tyres, rocks, and branches while forcing the shutdown of schools and disrupting services.
However, the area had returned to a state of calm and normalcy on Tuesday, August 13.
Tshwane had suspended some of its service delivery operations and warned that the response to residents’ service complaints such as power failures, waste collection, burst water pipes and sewer blockages would be delayed due to the ongoing protest.
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Fourteen protesters were arrested for public violence on Monday, according to the Tshwane metro.
At the time, the metro however reported that traffic was flowing smoothly, while police would maintain a watchful presence to ensure ongoing stability and the situation in the community was under control.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the situation in the area was currently calm and everything had returned to normal.
“Traffic is flowing well, and law enforcement agencies will continue to monitor the area.”
Ward councillor Benjamin Lawrence confirmed that schools in the area had returned to operations and roads are no longer blocked.
He said the motive behind the protest remains unclear.
“Yesterday’s incident was an act of crime, and people were just trying to use the incident as an excuse to do crime,” said Lawrence.
He said some people took advantage of the incident and convinced others that it was a protest.
“The people responsible should be held accountable, and the law needs to deal with them.”
Lawrence said that there was no service delivery interruption in the past week that would have resulted from a protest.
He concluded that the protest was an act of criminality and should be treated as such.
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