Rubber bullets, teargas used to halt Walmer protest
POLICE fired rubber bullets and used teargas to disperse protesters in Walmer early yesterday.
The township residents, protesting against slow service delivery, blocked traffic in 9th Avenue, Victoria Drive and Heugh Road with burning tyres.
The protest, which started at about 4am, was organised by G-West area residents.
Zukiswa Sinto, who has lived in G-West since 1989, said none of the promises made over the years about the provision of houses and eradication of the bucket toilet system had been kept.
“G-West has not changed. The shacks we occupy still get flooded when it rains,” Sinto said, adding that the municipality ignored their grievances.
“Sometimes the buckets and the refuse are not picked up for weeks. At the moment, we do not have water in the taps and have to travel to other areas for water, where we stand in long queues.”
The protesters expressed anger with the present leadership of the metro, led by the ANC.
Nomampondomise Mvelo, who has lived in a shack in the area for 22 years, slammed the ANC.
“[Mayor] Danny Jordaan does not want to come to Walmer. He only visits areas dominated by coloured people because he wants to lure them to vote for the ANC and not the DA,” Mvelo said.
Kholwaphi Nojoko said: “It is beside the point which party attends to our grievances.”
Amid chants of “viva DA” by some residents, DA Ward 3 councillor David Hayselden and his assistant, Khuselwa Tshisa, arrived and addressed the protesters. They cautioned, however, that they could not intervene as the ward was not DA-run.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the municipality had established a task team led by deputy mayor Bicks Ndoni to liaise on an ongoing basis with community leaders in Walmer.
Police spokeswoman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said teargas and rubber bullets were used by police who cleared the road shortly before 8am. Police had continued to monitor the situation.