Johannesburg - Rioting in Meyerton continued on Friday morning as residents protested over service delivery.
Broken street signs, rocks, burning tyres and branches littered the roads, blocking the R551 and parts of the R59.
Hundreds of protesters, mainly from the Sicelo informal settlement, continued to sing, chant and barricade main roads.
They have been protesting since Tuesday.
The situation was tense and several times police drove a Nyala through to scatter the angry crowd. After this didn’t work, at least seven canisters of tear gas and rubber bullets were shot in a bid to stop them regrouping.
Residents told The Star they were “sick and tired of their leadership” and no longer want Midvaal municipality to be a DA-run area.
“The DA have been here for 10 years and they have done nothing for us,” one man said.
“We want RDP houses, we want electricity, water and employment. They have not made things better for us,” he said.
One woman said many people were forced to live in rented housing and could stay only for three to six months with some forced to move into shacks. “We need RDP houses, we have families, we just can’t live like this any more,” she said.
Protesters vowed that they would not stop protesting until mayor Bongani Baloyi came to address them. “He is lying to the media about the situation here,” another resident shouted.
Baloyi has blamed the municipal workers union Samwu and “political opponents” for protests.
Baloyi, in a detailed official response regarding the strike and protests, said the protests had resulted in an “unusual disorder and violence in our normally stable municipality”.
“On 28 June, I issued a statement warning that it had come to my attention that there was a plot by our political opponents to destabilise the municipality. I was not yet informed as to the proposed details,” Baloyi said.
Baloyi said Midvaal’s employees had put forward a request that the entire municipality be re-graded to a higher category of municipality, a request which management fully supported.
He said workers began a “go-slow” strike because the grading system request did not find favour with Co-operative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen and the chief executive of the SA Local Government Association (Salga), Xolile George.
Baloyi said the municipality tried to resolve the workers strike by a way of signing a memorandum of understanding, but the municipality subsequently received a referral of dispute to the Salga’s bargaining council.
“Samwu [then] arranged a march for its members, and also began daily picketing outside the municipal offices over and exceeding lunch times,” Baloyi said, adding that Samwu accused the municipality of making discriminatory promotions for certain levels of employees.
Baloyi said Samwu members caused damage to municipal infrastructure during this strike, including electricity supply to Golf Park, Extension 6, Sicelo, Meyerton Park, water meters and other Council property in Meyerton, as well as water interruptions in Drumblade.
“They have damaged private property and threatened the lives and property of staff members and councillors,” Baloyi said.
“It became clear that the opportune timing of Samwu in raising an issue from 2012 in 2016, and then including other, ever changing complaints, was a fulfilment of my warning statement.
Baloyi said according to a reliable source, a Samwu-ANC plot was underway to destabilise Midvaal by way of sabotaging service delivery and damaging public and private property in the run-up to the local government elections on August 3.
“They have interfered with service delivery in an attempt to destabilise the municipality so that residents become angry and to therefore encourage people to protest, holding us to ransom as the elections loom,” Baloyi said.
“I called on the ANC to abandon the undemocratic plot, and to campaign with ideas and plans, rather than intimidation and violence.”
Samwu and the ANC were not immediately available for comment.
Baloyi said the municipality was currently building a civil case against Samwu, on the basis that it followed all legal processes to prevent them from striking, and 10 employees who were arrested at the illegal march had been suspended pending an investigation.
Residents didn’t go to work and a principal of one of the schools watched from afar, warning parents not to send their children to school. “It’s not safe, keep them at home,” he was overheard saying.
The situation calmed but residents then began to regroup at the bridge overlooking the R59. The police raced to the scene from the R551 in a bid to quell the scene.
On Thursday, protesters threw stones at the police and blocked the R59, and the police fired rubbers bullets and stun grenades, but their attempts to disperse the crowd were largely unsuccessful as they regrouped and continued with their protest.
Motorists were diverted to alternative routes for most of Thursday.
The Sicelo bridge crossing over the R59 linking Vereeniging, Alberton and Joburg was also closed.
The protesters have destroyed the steel barriers and used them to blockade the bridge.
On Thursday, journalists and photographers were caught in the crossfire, and one of them was hit in the face with a stone.
On Friday night, Gauteng traffic police spokesman Obed Sibasa said the R59 would remain closed.
“Motorists are advised to use the N1, as the roads in and around the R59 are not safe.”
He said a handful of protesters were causing mayhem.
“Most of the people dispersed when the officials spoke to them and promised to hear them out on Saturday.”
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The Star and African News Agency