Jo’burg: Empty promises spark protest

Click here to see pictures from the protest.

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Empty promises spark protest
6 July 2009, 06:26

By Poloko Tau and Jacques Breytenbach

Diepsloot was plunged into darkness on Sunday night after a housing protest turned violent.

Roads were barricaded with burning tyres and furniture, large rocks littered the streets, and on several occasions, police resorted to firing rubber bullets at the unruly crowd. Criminals took advantage of the chaos as they looted shops.

On the fringes of the area, a business owner cried: “All my things are gone. They have taken everything.”

The protest, which started around 10am, was held to demonstrate dissatisfaction over the allocation of houses and the fact that some of the shack dwellers were once again being moved, this time to an informal settlement in Brits, north-west of Pretoria.

On the other side of the township, a group threatened to torch the local councillor’s house, which remained under police guard last night.

A police helicopter hovered over the sprawling township monitoring several hotspots, where groups of residents ran around singing and stoning police cars. A senior police officer’s car was stoned near the satellite police station in Extension 6 where residents had converged, asking the police to arrange for their councillor to address them.

The situation remained volatile as police continued to patrol several hotspots including the busy R511, where several cars passing by were stoned or had windows smashed by angry residents.

Diepsloot came about when many shack dwellers were moved from Alexandra to a new area near Fourways, where they said they were promised that houses would be built for them. More than 10 years later, residents say they have yet to see the promised housing.

Residents on Sunday said they were angered after they were informed that they were going to be moved again to make way for new developments.

“We’ll only move out of shacks when we get new houses that we were promised,” said Martina Matlaila.

Another resident, Mpho Letsoalo, said the community had taken to the streets because the councillor would not address them on housing issues. “Some residents are asking for the government to prepare land around here and give them stands so that they can build their own houses but that, too, won’t happen,” Letsoalo said. “People here are fed up with empty promises by the government.”

SAPS spokesperson Inspector Daniel Mavimbela said police had managed to contain the situation in Diepsloot and were going to continue monitoring it last night. No arrests were made and no one had been reported injured.

* This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on July 06, 2009