Cape Town - Jakes Gerwel Drive and the R300 near Mitchells Plain were closed again on Wednesday evening after a protest turned violent in the area, city officials said.
Vanguard Drive was also blocked off from traffic going out of Mitchells Plain.
The protest, which started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, saw an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) at a petrol station set alight, as well as a fruit and veg stall and a vehicle. The protests also saw a number of vehicles pelted with stones, traffic lights were also damaged and an amapela taxi stoned, officials said.
About 500 protesters from the Siqalo
informal settlement next to Jakes Gerwel
Drive in Mitchells Plain blocked roads
with burning tyres and two huge shipping
containers. The protesters are demanding services
in the informal settlement, while the City of Cape Town says it cannot provide services on privately-owned land.
Clashes broke out between the protesting Siqalo residents and residents of Highlands in Mitchells Plain as well as with police.
Thirty people were arrested by the police's Public Order Police (POPS) unit.
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Several roads in and around Mitchell’s Plain were closed on Wednesday morning due to the protest action. According to City officials, Jakes Gerwel Drive was closed between the R300 and Highlands Drive, while other road closures included key arteries Weltevreden and Morgenster, and Varkensvlei roads, as well as Highlands and Fulan.
Some of the major routes were reopened on Wednesday afternoon but officials said after 8pm that the roads were closed again, with Vanguard Drive blocked off from traffic going out of Mitchell's Plain due to residents forming a chain in front of Highlands Drive.
Meanwhile, the ANC said they would hold a stakeholder meeting in Mitchells Plain following the violent protests.
ANC NEC member Fikile Mbalula, the ANC in the Western Cape, Cosatu, the SACP, local organisations and community representatives will attend the meeting, a statement said.
"The ANC condemns the violent protests that erupted in Mitchellls Plain between its residents and those of the nearby informal settlement Siqalo. We are also disheartened by the racial character of the protests," said ANC Western Cape Provincial Secretary Faiez Jacobs.
"The residents of Siqalo Informal settlements have been asking for basic services from the City of Cape Town for a long time now to no avail," said Jacobs.
"The DA seems fully conscious that when the residents of Siqalo express their discontent and protests on the streets, it affects other communities, including Mitchells Plain, which stirs up racial tensions between Africans and coloureds, something that serves the DA's interests."