Botho Molosankwe
A LOW-KEY protest by Sweetwaters residents turned violent yesterday when their councillor failed to address them.
Angry residents vented their anger on passing cars on Eikenhof Road, stoning some of them.
Residents claim Shirley Nepfumanda was meant to address them after police had ordered them to disperse from the road and go to the sports ground.
There, they said, Nepfumanda was to speak to them about their housing issues.
However, Nepfumanda said the residents had made it clear earlier that they did not want to speak to her.
“They said they wanted President Jacob Zuma. I will speak to them, but not today, because the police said they must calm down first,” Nepfumanda said.
The protest started early in the morning when residents took to Eikenhof Road and barricaded it with burning tyres and other objects. “Zuma big liar” and “Keep your promises” were some of the placards they carried.
They said they wanted Zuma to visit the area again after his surprise visit in July 2010. Zuma said then that he was shocked at the living conditions there.
Yesterday, Nepfumanda had initially arrived in a police vehicle at Eikenhof Road.
But when residents were told that the road was not the proper venue to conduct a discussion, they defiantly sat down. They were then ordered to disperse and gather at the nearby sports field.
At the centre of the protest is the residents’ dissatisfaction with a housing project in the nearby Thulamtwana informal settlement. Residents claim Zuma had promised them houses, but now it seemed as if it was Thulamtwana residents who were benefiting.
But an official from Gauteng’s Department of Housing said the department did not understand why residents were protesting.
“They want houses built in their own yards, but we told them that would not be possible as their area has no services and is packed with shacks.
“We are building the houses about 500m from Sweetwaters, we are not relocating them,” said Dunstan Moncho, project manager for housing in Region G.
Nepfumanda said Sweetwaters residents knew their new houses had to be built in the Thulamtwana area, and had been told so at two meetings.
“The big instigators in this are people who don’t qualify for houses.”