service delivery protests


Service delivery protests in North West

Friday, July 15, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

Residents barricaded the main road between Mafikeng and Zeerust on Friday morning to demand better services, says North West police.

They placed stones and burning tyres on the road in the protest which started at 7:00 in Ottoshoop, said Sergeant Kealeboga Molale.

The police were on the scene and the situation was under control, she said.

The protesters were singing and dancing, demanding electricity and clean water.

Molale said they were residents of Maruping Village, which falls under the Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality.

She advised motorists travelling between Mafikeng and Zeerust to use the Lichtenburg road.

Credit to: Times Live

  • Email
Tagged

Law society will help Tatane’s family

Saturday, April 16, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

The violence which led to the death of Ficksburg protester Andries Tatane was “shocking, unjustified and disproportionate”, the Law Society of SA (LSSA) said on Friday.

“By all accounts Mr Tatane, who was part of a group protesting against the lack of service delivery in the town, posed no threat to the police,” LSSA leaders Nano Matlala and Praveen Sham said in a statement.

Tatane was a member of the Congress of the People and Ward 14 candidate for the May 18 local government elections in Meqheleng, Ficksburg in the eastern Free State.

He was killed in the town on Wednesday, allegedly after being hit by a rubber bullet and being beaten by the police. The incident was broadcast on SABC news that night.

The alleged police brutality has since been widely condemned by political parties, trade unions and civil society.

The society has offered to help Tatane’s family explore all legal remedies open to them, including instituting a claim against the police minister.

“The LSSA calls on the Independent Complaints Directorate, the minister and the Ficksburg local authority to investigate the incident speedily,including the holding of an inquest. No stone must be left unturned in bringing the perpetrators to book.

“As long as previously marginalised and dispossessed communities continue to live in dire poverty, the increasing disillusionment with regard to poor or non-existent service delivery will, inevitably, lead to protests.”

The LSSA believed it was within the community’s rights to demand that the Constitution be respected in relation to adequate housing, human dignity, health care, food, water and social security.

Government and the police should act with sympathy and not violence when addressing the complaints of communities.

“The LSSA urges the [SA Police Service] to exercise appropriate restraint and use force only as a last resort. It must also be proportionate to the threat facing the Saps. South Africa should learn from Egypt on how to deal with crowd control.”

Credit to: News 24 and Sapa

Read related stories on The Mobilitate Witness:

Residents outraged over Ficksburg deaths

Police allegedly kills service delivery protester

  • Email
Tagged , , ,

Service delivery protests out of control

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

Service delivery protests in Wesselton, outside Ermelo, were entering a second day on Tuesday, Mpumalanga police said.

“The protest did not stop last night, it only subsided,” Captain Leonard Hlathi said.

He said protesters were still setting tyres alight in the township.

Thirty-three people would appear in the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday after they were arrested on Monday and for public violence.

Hlathi said protesters barricaded roads by using burning tyres and stones on Monday.

“They broke down robots and some traffic signs.”

Police could not say how many people were participating in the protest because they were operating in different areas.

An eNews television crew covering service delivery protests in Ermelo has been attacked by a crowd of protesters.

According to the eNews channel, reporter Jody Jacobs and a cameraman were hit by rocks, and their vehicles were damaged.

This included their cameras and computer equipment.

Dramatic footage of the incident was shown live on the news channel, including of the bleeding cameraman.

Jacobs told the anchor in the studio that the police were outnumbered by protesters and they had to run and find cover in their satellite van.

Petrol bombs were reportedly thrown at the police.

Credit to: News 24 and Sapa

  • Email
Tagged , ,

W.C service delivery protests ‘is political’

Monday, November 22, 2010 No Comments by Zelda

Service delivery protests on the Cape Flats are partly the result of an ANC campaign aimed at giving the impression that the Democratic Alliance does not care about the poor, DA leader Helen Zille said on Friday.

Zille said service delivery in Khayelitsha, where council vehicles were set alight last week, was bedevilled by conflict within communities about “who should benefit, who should move to make way for installation of underground services, who should get to work on the project, etc”.

“But in the present situation there is an additional dimension,” she wrote in her weekly newsletter SA Today.

“Local government elections are due in about six months, and hundreds of local activists are competing with each other to be the chosen candidate for their ward, or to secure a place on the list.”

She said leading protest action had therefore become a way for would-be candidates to build a profile.

“In the ANC-dominated wards of Cape Town, there is yet another dimension at play because the ANC is determined to do whatever it takes to unseat the DA-led coalition in the city.

“Their agenda is to create the illusion of spontaneous community anger at lack of service delivery to reinforce the lie that the DA does not care about the poor.”

Zille conceded that service delivery in Khayelitsha is “by no means perfect”.

“But one thing is certain: there would be far more of it if it weren’t for service delivery protests,” she said.

“It is beyond irony that services are destroyed in the name of service delivery protests,” she said.

Credit to News24 and Sapa

  • Email
Tagged ,