M&G: ANC urges calm after Gauteng service-delivery protests

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-11-anc-urges-calm-after-gauteng-servicedelivery-protests

KARABO KEEPILE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Mar 11 2010 12:34

ANC urges calm after Gauteng service-delivery protests

By mid-morning on Thursday, five metro police cars were lined up on
Impala Road in Dobsonville, Soweto, keeping a watchful eye where
protests had erupted at about 8am.

Taxi marshal Lucky Mokwena told the Mail & Guardian he watched
protesters who had taken to the streets demanding RDP houses hours
earlier: “They were burning tyres and protesting for houses. They say
they have been waiting since 1994.”

Burnt tyres lay scattered at an intersection on Impala Road at 11am on
Thursday. Angry residents — whom the M&G understands were from Zola,
Emdeni and Chiawelo in Soweto — said they would be back the following
day.

Thursday morning’s outburst of community anger over what residents say
is the municipality’s continued failures of service delivery followed
Wednesday’s protests in the same area.

It has been a torrid week of community action in Gauteng. Protests also
flared in:

* Mamelodi and Bronkhorstspruit (on Monday);

* Brits and Oukasie (Tuesday); and

* Reiger Park and Daveyton on the East Rand, Ennerdale
(Johannesburg South), Protea Glen in Soweto, Ramaphosa informal
settlement, Attridgeville and Mamelodi in Pretoria )on Thursday
morning.

On Thursday, the ANC in Gauteng said, “It seems there is a systematic
pattern and that the protests are coordinated with a clear objective to
destabilise government.”

In a statement issued late on Thursday morning, the party appealed “to
communities to remain calm [and] exercise patience and tolerance”.

“The ANC will send a team of leaders to speak to the people about their
concerns and determine appropriate measures to resolve the problems,”
the statement said.

“The protests do not mean that people are disillusioned with the ANC
government, but are raising issues for government to speed up change and
succeed,” the party said in the same statement. — Additional reporting
by Tarryn Harbour and Lisa Steyn