Pretoria - Tembisa residents shut down the township and fought running battles with the police over service delivery yesterday leaving four people dead, scores injured and millions of rand in damages to public infrastructure.
Residents took to the streets in the Ekurhuleni township in protest over service delivery and “expensive” rates, taxes and high electricity bills. They blockaded roads with burning tyres, rocks and heavy metals from 4am and prevented people from going to work.
The main civic centre at Rabasotho Section was burnt to the ground, with several cars, while municipal council offices were also set alight. Another satellite municipal hall in Ethafeni Section was also torched. A bank ATM outside the municipal property was broken into and bombed.
During the protest, three people were shot dead, allegedly by police, who were trying to disperse the crowd. Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department confirmed late yesterday that two of the four people had died at Rabasotho when an ATM they were trying to break into exploded. The number of those who died and the cause of the blast were not yet known.
Among those shot was 43-year-old Pheta Molonyama, who was hit by a bullet while buying a cigarette at one of the shops in Makhulong Section.
Eugene Shabalala, 52, was also caught in the crossfire. He said he was visiting a friend next to a house where he was renting at Rabasotho.
It is not yet clear what happened to the third victim who died in Umthambeka Section.
A community leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity and preferred to be identified by the code name G-17, told Pretoria News that he suspected that there were more people who died during the protests, accusing the police of targeting them.
“These people have come here to kill us. They have not come to keep control. The man they killed in Rabasotho was inside the yard. He was not even part of the crowd. So why was he shot?
“You can see from his wounds that he was shot with a shotgun. Why do they use live ammunition to disperse crowds?”
“G-17” vowed that the residents would continue with the protests until their demands were met and Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell met them.
He accused the DA-led coalition, supported by the EFF, of cancelling free electricity and the free 6 kilolitres of water.
Campbell had promised to meet the community on Friday at the Rabasotho community hall but did not pitch. Instead she sent some of her officials to meet the community which triggered the Monday protest.
Sizwe Dlamini, a 58-year-old Tembisa resident, said he could no longer afford to buy electricity because of the high tariffs. “This has gone on for far too long. Last time I paid about R800 monthly. Just last week I had to pay R1 800. That just does not make sense. It is daylight robbery and we have had enough.”
#Tembisa Customer Care Center is On Fire
— Vehicle Trackers (@VehicleTrackerz) August 1, 2022
Vehicles are burning inside the Thembisa Civic center and some vehicle burning outside on the street.#saps trying to contain the situation...#Tembisashutdown pic.twitter.com/V83EuQ7Ktr
In a statement, Campbell called for calm amid the rising tension, saying the destruction was politically-motivated.
“I call for calm to immediately be restored in Tembisa. Citizens have the constitutional right to protest, however, such acts of arson and vandalism to public infrastructure will not be tolerated.
“Last week, I delegated five MMCs to engage residents on the memorandum they submitted to the City. However, that meeting unfortunately collapsed and failed to reach any resolutions.
“I will be contacting the Premier of Gauteng David Makhura through our inter-governmental relations channels to develop a co-ordinated approach to the impasse by the government.
“As a multiparty-coalition government we are concerned that the visuals we are witnessing in Tembisa are no longer community-based, but rather a well-orchestrated operation to render the township ungovernable.”
She said she believed that the current destruction of public infrastructure was politically-motivated and intended to undermine the progress of the new administration.
“As a multiparty-coalition government, our door has always been open to engage, and we have been engaging with the Tembisa Business Forum as per their memorandum concerns. To the residents of Tembisa, please remain safe and trust that our law-enforcement authorities will restore law and order in the area.”
The forum, an organisation that had organised the initial march to Rabasotho, distanced itself from the shutdown, saying the protests on Monday were unplanned.
The community had been complaining about high electricity bills for months.
They first marched to the Rabasotho hall on April 13, followed by a march to the mayor’s office in Germiston on July 20, where she promised to meet them on Friday. But when she did not pitch, angry residents responded by organising yesterday’s shutdown.
Meanwhile, Independent Police Investigative Directorate representatives were in Tembisa investigating the protest-related deaths. They had to be escorted into the burning township by a police nyala, which had to drive over rocks and metals to pave the way for the state forensic pathologists.
Pretoria News