The R334 was temporarily closed by hundreds of protesters from Area 11 informal settlement in Gunguluza in Kwanobuhle, Kariega. They demanded electrification, an end to bucket system and to be relocated to a nearby open field.
In a second protest since Friday, about 200 people blocked the R334 road with rubble and burning tyres in Kariega from 5am on Wednesday. Blowing whistles and singing songs, the protest by shack dwellers from Area 11 informal settlement in Gunguluza stretched into the afternoon.
The protesters were demanding to be relocated to nearby vacant sites. They say the settlement is chronically overcrowded. The gravel thoroughfares that pass for streets have raw sewage flowing in them. People use tyres as steppingstones to cross them. The residents want electrification, water, an end to the bucket system, and for their sites to be mapped.
“The road remains closed due to rubble that needs to be cleared off the road surface, and motorists are urged to use alternative routes to Kwanobuhle,” said police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge.
He said, “SAPS Public Order Police (POP) responded to the protest and utilised stun grenades to disperse the protesters … POP will remain on the scene while the local councillors deal with the community demands.”
But resident Mpucuko Hina said people had lost faith in Ward 45 Councillor Sabelo Mabuda (ANC). “We now want the mayor and no one else. No mayor, no meeting!”
When Mabuda arrived in a police nyala with municipal officials, he was booed.
“The land you want to be relocated to has holes and is not smooth. The municipality is busy trying to organise a fleet [of consturction vehicles],” he told the protesters.
He said he knew about all the issues of Area 11 and that residents need not mention them because he has been dealing with them through officials.
A resident shouted, “We won’t listen to him and these municipal officials … We want the mayor, once and for all.”
The protesters dispersed but said they will keep returning to the streets until the mayor comes.
Madoda Mcwabeni, a manager in the human settlements directorate, told GroundUp the mayor was in Cape Town.
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Fun South African Fact: Vilakazi Street in Soweto has been home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners. A tour through Soweto will always stop at Vilakazi Street to reveal a number of heritage sites of great importance to democratic South Africa. Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived here at some point in their lives. In 1984, Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for his non-violent fight against the apartheid regime. Nine years later in 1993, Nelson Mandela shared the Nobel Peace Prize with then-president F.W. de Klerk as an award for their role in bringing about the peaceful end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela then went on to become South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.