Wait over for Santa residents

met.

This situation was defused with promises that residents’ complaints would be investigated and addressed within two weeks.

A fortnight later, Matika again apologised to the community for their living conditions and assured each of the 300 households that they would be allocated an erf of their own within two months.

Residents were also reassured that the municipality and the provincial department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) would be working together to find a sustainable solution to their grievances.

This two-month deadline came and went and in June last year the community were furious to find that little to no progress had been made.

Six months later, the situation was still largely unchanged.

Barkly Road was again shut down for the second time in less than a year, at the end of January, with the community presenting a near identical list of grievances.

This time, members of the SAPS opened fire with rubber bullets and arrested seven protesters for public violence - using what the community felt was unnecessary force to halt the demonstration.

This latest protest resulted in the arrests of Ernest Riet, 33, Neels Phokoje, 47, Boyce Gabokwe, 64, Lionel Ahben, 40, Johnson Peters, 33, Martha Kalamore, 38, and Kutlwano Mangasanja, 21, who are due to appear in the Galeshewe Magistrate’s Court on charges of public violence later this week.

Subsequent to the most recent mass demonstrations, one communal tap was installed after municipal inspections of the area found that there was running water available on several of the residential properties in the community.