Residents of Quarry Road West informal settlement in Reservoir Hills took to the streets last Thursday to protest over the absence of water and electricity as well as sanitary issues after their toilets were washed away during the recent heavy floods.
Community leader, Sandile Yalo, who is also known as “Man”, said the residents were angry as they felt the municipality’s negligence is even worse after the floods. “We never expected the municipality to treat us like this, especially in such dire times. The people have no shelter, no food and nowhere to relieve themselves since everything was washed away by the heavy rain. To get their attention, we then decided to protest and immediately when they heard that there was a protest, Metro teams and officials from Disaster Management were dispatched to the area,” said Yalo. He said the protest was not violent, however, the community wanted to show that they had needs just like other affected citizens. Yalo alleged that Metro officers released teargas on the protestors to disperse the crowd, which he feels was unnecessary as they were not hitting any cars, but were just chanting after blockading the road. “All we wanted was for the municipality to provide shelter for those who were displaced. We did try and find alternate land to start rebuilding but since we had not been placed and had no mattresses, we were stopped,” he said. Ward 23 Councillor, Alicia Kissoon, said the protestors or informal settlers started invading land in her ward. “Since they were not allocated land by Disaster Management, the informal settlers decided to invade land in Ward 25, which is a huge problem,” said Cllr Kissoon.
On Monday, 18 April, The Springfield Weekly Gazette got in touch with informal settlers who said that, to date, they had not received any tangible response from the Office of the Speaker who did say they should give him seven days to respond to their grievances. “The only assistance we received was that of meals from non-profit organisations. Some of the residents are currently using a nearby church hall as shelter,” Yalo added. It is alleged that the protest did somehow get violent as protestors allegedly damaged three vehicles on the M19 when they blockaded the road with burning tyres and rubble. Provincial Police Spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nqobile Gwala, said nine people were arrested for public violence and damage to infrastructure. “The police were at the scene and traffic was moving slowly. Motorists were advised to use alternate routes,” said Lt Col Gwala.
