Residents shut down Ga-Rankuwa over unresolved service delivery crisis
Protesters have voiced their anger at the Tshwane metro, citing sewage flooding, dark streets, under-staffed clinics, and unaffordable estimated bills as urgent issues needing immediate government attention.
Ga-Rankuwa residents have expressed deep frustration over what they describe as a decade of neglect and failing service delivery from the Tshwane metro.
The community took to the streets in a peaceful protest on August 18, citing issues such as estimates on meter readings and utility bills, sewage spillage, and crime as factors in their frustrations.
The residents shut down the area, ensuring that traffic did not move freely in and out of the settlement to highlight their feelings regarding deep-rooted service delivery failures.
Peaceful protest in Ga-rankuwa, no burning of tyres or looting but a march to local @CityTshwane municipal offices to hand in a memorandum of complaints đź‘Ś pic.twitter.com/E10aieT3b1
— Colman Photo 🇿🇦 (@PhotoColman) August 18, 2025
“We have been having long-standing grievances with regard to the lack of service delivery in Ga-Rankuwa,” said one of the organisers and community leader, Tshepo Matlaela.
According to him, the purpose of the shutdown was to bring the attention of the metro and government to the most pressing issues the community has been reportedly grappling with for almost 10 years.
He said some of the pressing issues include estimated bills, poor infrastructure, lack of services at public facilities, poor sanitation, and frequent power outages.
“We feel that the city is billing us corruptly by doing estimates [of bills], while we still face issues of poor service delivery,” he said.
He expressed frustration over estimated bills, claiming the metro does not have a proper system to calculate bills.
“We don’t remember seeing people taking any meter readings or anything like that in Ga-Rankuwa since 2016,” he said
He said that most households owe bills ranging from R100 000 up to R300 000 each.
“Ga-Rankuwa is a very poor township; most of the people are unemployed. How are we going to pay those taxes?” he asked.
Matlaele added that despite several meetings and repeated attempts at communication with the metro, there has been no transparency and no meaningful implementation.
He said a communication channel was created with the metro to address the issue of bills, but it was only used once.
“We created a WhatsApp group that has just been standing. It has never been used.”
He then said another pressing issue was continuous sewage spillage plaguing the community.
“The whole of Ga-Rankuwa stinks as we speak; sewer systems and water drainage systems do not exist here,” said Matlaele.
He highlighted that it becomes a big issue when it rains, as properties get flooded by the sewage.
“There is spillage all over the place, people can’t even get out of their houses. We have people who are living in soaked houses, soaked by the sewage spillage,” he said.
He added that two local schools and the magistrates’ court are also drowning in sewage spillage, and that this has been the situation for years.
Matlaele further said that public facilities are not correctly staffed or equipped, leading to high crime rates in the community.
“We are currently being served by only two vans from the police station, and Ga-Rankuwa has a very high crime rate.”
He added that darkness in the community is contributing to crime peaking.
“We live in darkness. Molefe Makinta, the busiest highway to our streets, [has] no streetlights,” he said, adding that high mast lighting is needed in the community.
Matlaela further said local clinics needed upgrades, saying, “We need more nurses because our clinics are short-staffed, every day you find unending queues.”
Residents also shared their frustration over the neglect of the community by the metro.
#GARANKUWASHUTDOWN pic.twitter.com/Q8RgEPQEh5
— Christian Posts Blog (@billysigudla1) August 18, 2025
Sthembiso Nyathi said, “We are being treated like we don’t belong, as if we don’t have rights to services like everyone else in the country.”
He shared that it hurt to feel neglected by the municipality and urged for action by the metro, stating, “Our municipality treats us really badly, we have been neglected for years, but are forced to pay bills.”
Another resident, Francinah Monyai, expressed pessimism over service delivery, saying, “We are marching with that little hope that all will be well, but honestly speaking, our municipality does not care about us and it never will.”
MMC for Housing and Human Settlements, Aaron Maluleka, received the protesters’ memorandum, committing to respond to the demands of the community.
“The demands in the memorandum are fair and reasonable. We will meet with leaders on Friday to scope down all the demands according to each department responsible,” he said.
He said the community’s demands will be discussed and finalised, confirming, “The metro will respond comprehensively to the demands within seven days.”
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