March and March campaign members were seen cleaning the dirt on the streets of Durban on Friday. This followed days of sporadic protests in which people whom the protesters identified as being immigrants were attacked.
Members of the March and March took to the streets of Durban on Friday as part of their week-long clean-up campaign.
A group of about 20 people walked around with refuse bags, picking up litter. Campaigners began walking and cleaning from about 11am after a lengthy meeting with metro officers. Most stores along their route, mainly Bertha Mkhize Street, remained closed. Metro Police lined most of the road keeping a close eye on participants.
When GroundUp attended the campaign on Tuesday and Wednesday tensions flared. Some participants stuck to cleaning the area, but many smaller groups broke away to search for and apprehend people they claimed were illegal immigrants. Some of these interactions turned violent, with some people getting shoved and hit.
Participants also went into stores and demanded to see vendor permits, in some cases forcing the owners to close their stores.
Friday’s campaign remained peaceful. According to metro police spokesperson Victor Zungu, SAPS and Metro Police met with March and March organisers to warn that they would only be allowed to clean, as they had previously told the authorities.
Campaigners refused to comment to GroundUp following an order from March and March leaders who were disgruntled with the way the campaign had been reported on.
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Waste management problems: Inadequate waste collection and disposal.
troubadour
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to the world’s longest wine route: Route 62. It spans an impressive 850 kilometres and the excellent wineries along the way are a must-visit for lovers of fine wine! You can even enjoy the winelands on a day trip from Cape Town. Travel 40-min to an hour outside of the city centre to enjoy decadent wine tastings and even wander through some of the beautiful wine farms and estates! Suburbs like Durbanville and Constantia are even closer to the city centre and are also home to many exceptional wineries.
Shimmy Shammy
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?