Johannesburg - A protest in Riverlea, Joburg, left roads littered and blocked with burning rubbish, tyres and tree branches on Wednesday.
Angry residents said they were sick and tired of the lack of service delivery. “This is not about politics or DA or ANC, this is about a community that is suffering,” said a resident who identified herself as Cheryl.
undefined“We don’t have clinics, jobs, houses or sanitation,” said another resident, Susan. “There are people here who have been waiting for houses for 30 years and are still living with their children and grandchildren in a one-room Zozo hut,” she said.
A 25-year-old resident, who asked not to be named, said that since finishing school several years ago, he and many others were unemployed.
“We need jobs. We are the youth and the voice of this country. It’s unfair. We’re not asking for everything at once, we just want to be treated properly,” he said.
“Without jobs, our youth are turning to drugs and crime, they are angry,” Cheryl added.
Residents called on the mayor to address their problems as he “knows about the situation but does not care”.
As the day wore on, residents made their way back to the entrance of Riverlea after police had earlier chased them away with rubber bullets after the younger residents had barricaded Nasrec Road. Residents remonstrated with police: “We have the right to stand here and protest. You can’t make us leave.”
With municipal elections on the horizon, residents began shouting at cars passing along Nasrec Road: “No service, no vote”, to which some cars hooted in agreement.
Soon afterwards, DA ward councillor Basil Douglas arrived. Residents began shouting at him: “You’re a liar, you say one thing to the media and other things to us. You make empty promises and tell us you can’t do anything, but you eat all the money.”
Douglas said it was the “people on top who are failing the community”.
The protest has been taking place since Monday.
The Star