In the early hours on Thursday, August 11 the Tshedzani Flats community of Roodepoort took to the streets and closed off certain parts of the CBD to protest against evictions from the flats.
Reports indicate that residents started protesting from as early as 02:30 before law enforcement arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd.
According to one of the protesters, rubbers bullets were used to disperse the crowd and several protesters, including women and children, were injured.
See video here: https://youtube.com/shorts/RQZji1JLLX8
The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Xolani Fihla said law-enforcement officers had been deployed to the Roodepoort CDB.
JMPD urged motorists to avoid the area and find alternative routes.
The closures affect Dumont Street, Mario Street and Van Wyk Street, disrupting traffic in and out of the CBD. Malstalko Road is closed to traffic completely.
The situation in the area is tense and motorists are advised to expect delays on Randfontein Road, or avoid these routes.
City Power also confirmed that as a result of the protest, their teams are not able to respond to the outages in and around Roodepoort due to the volatility of the situation in the area.
“We have been informed by the JMPD and other law-enforcement agencies of several road closures following a protest action by the residents since this morning, in which even rubber bullets were fired and cars and property reportedly damaged. We have advised our teams to stay clear of the CBD and nearby suburbs to ensure their safety and that of City Power trucks,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
According to the power utility, 40% of their depot service area is affected, meaning that repair work will be affected as they won’t be able to attend to outage calls or do any work in the area until it is safe to do so.
