UPDATE:
DURBAN- The apparent exclusion of Foreman Road informal settlement from the eThekwini ward 25 budget sparked a violent protest in Clare Estate, Durban on Tuesday morning, protestors said.
Protestors closed off Clare Road by barricading it with tyres, rocks and debris which they then set alight.
The soup kitchen nearby was vandalised and had to be closed. The road was re-opened by midday but police kept a watchful eye on a group of protesters continued to pelt passing vehicles and the police with rocks.
A memorandum was handed over to an official from the eThekwini Municipality that contained a list of demands from the settlement dwellers. A spokesman for Foreman Road dwellers, Mqapheli Bonono said they had been subjected to landlessness, homelessness, poverty and indignity. Bonono claimed the informal settlement has been sidelined and neglected. They demanded the transfer of land to the community for the construction of dignified housing.
They also wanted electricity supplied to all the shacks to prevent people from being electrocuted from illegal electricty connections which were responsible also for shack fires.
They have given the municipality three days to respond.
Ethekwini Ward 25 Councillor Hassan Haniff said 20 percent of the ward budget was given to selected informal settlements, that excluded the Foreman Road residents.
He said money was only allocated for speed humps on Foreman Road.
Haniff said the budget was created before he could be elected as councillor and did not have a say in it.