Johannesburg - A planned meeting between the City of Joburg and Alexandra residents has been cancelled after the event descended into chaos.
Mayor Herman Mashaba and COJ officials were set to finally meet with residents following days of protest over mushrooming shacks and poor service delivery.
Mashaba came under fire for the delay in meeting residents after the protests flared up, with residents eventually refusing to meet with him and instead demanding a meeting President Cyril Ramaphosa and Gauteng Premier David Makhura.
Both visited the community last week and addressed residents.
Monday's meeting was scheduled to take place at the Marlboro Community Hall at 6pm as part of the scheduled Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for Alexandra and region E but got off to a rocky start as residents refused to be addressed by officials.
The chaos continued for several minutes and eventually resulted in the cancellation of the meeting without Mashaba addressing residents.
Mashaba and officials addressed the media following the cancellation and condemned the disruption of the meeting.
"The disruption of the Alexandra IDP session this evening is a clear demonstration of the thuggery that has characterised the ANC’s hijacking of legitimate community grievances.
"It is two decades of ANC failure, broken promises and rampant corruption which, ironically, they now seek to use against the multi-party government in Johannesburg," Mashaba said.
He added that the city had however, had received the community's memorandum.
There are disruptions at the #JoburgIDP19 in Marlboro at the Community Centre by a group of protestors, but @JoburgMPD& @SAPoliceService are still present monitoring the situation @HermanMashaba @MichaelSun168 @CityofJoburgZA @CoJPublicSafety pic.twitter.com/SbwCOsHCzy
— David Tembe (@AsktheChiefJMPD) April 15, 2019
It remains unclear if the meeting will be rescheduled.