Protesters Block N2 for Hours at Grabouw

Hundreds of people are living on state land in Knoflokskraal with limited water supply and no electricity or sanitation facilities.

Residents of Khoisan settlement Knoflokskraal blocked the N2 in Grabouw with burning rubble in the early hours of Wednesday. About 80 people joined the protest at the High Rising road turnoff, according to Western Cape police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk.

Traffic was delayed for several hours.

Van Wyk said Grabouw SAPS, Public Order Police Services, and other law enforcement agencies responded. By 9:30am the group had “dispersed peacefully” and the N2 was reopened. No arrests were made.

Dawid De Wee, president of the Khoi Aboriginal Party, said residents had reached a “breaking point” due to a lack of water.

People first occupied the Knoflokskraal land in 2020 with the intention of establishing a Khoisan community. The settlement has grown substantially since then, with hundreds, possibly thousands, of people occupying about 1,800 hectares, and living without access to electricity and sanitation facilities.

The land is owned by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

De Wee said the water pump had stopped working because there was no electricity supply. GroundUp could not establish why there is no power.

The Theewaterskloof Municipality trucked in water, but it is “way too little”, said De Wee.

“Our demands are plain and simple: we want our basic human rights,” said De Wee.

He said some Knoflokskraal residents had put in their own septic tanks, but these are not being emptied by the municipality.

GroundUp previously reported how Knoflokskraal residents protested next to the N2 over water and sanitation in 2023.

The Theewaterskloof Municipality said in a media release that a municipal delegation met with the protestors, who “were demanding that electricity to the area be restored to enable access to water”.

The municipality said a meeting has been scheduled later this week to bring together the protestors and “stakeholders” to find amicable solutions.

The municipality said that while “service delivery responsibilities lie with the Department of Public Works”, the municipality is “committed to being an active participant in facilitating solutions”.