Last week Monday during a service delivery protest in Tsakane, Langaville they damaged the street lights on Lekopo Street and Black Road.
Motorist Herman Nhlapo (45), says he doesn’t understand why the residents decided to damage the infrastructure during their protests.
“We have marched and demanded tarred roads with proper road signs and robots like in the suburbs.
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“We now have people who express their frustrations about unemployment and electricity shortages by damaging infrastructure.
“We are now struggling because of the bad traffic within the community.
“Our roads are full of potholes because they dug them out and burned tyres on top of the tarred road.
“Taxi drivers do as they please on the roads, unlike when we had the traffic lights, which allowed us and pedestrians to take turns.
“This is like we are taking two steps forward and five steps backwards.”
“We are not winning as a society to be equal. We need to change our mentality and fight lack of service delivery in a different way,” he says.
A resident, Nthabiseng Molope (33), says violence helps the community get the attention of the government.
“When we only hand over memorandums to the municipality, they take forever to address our grievances,” she says.
During the recent handover of the Selope Thema Clinic, the mayor of Ekurhuleni, Clr Mzwandile Masina, responded to the community’s complaints regarding the vandalisation of infrastructure.
“The community needs to stand up and protect them against the protesters.
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“If you are angry with the ward councillor, don’t damage the public facilities.
There are different channels to raise your grievances.
“By damaging the infrastructure you are reversing the service delivery success that government has implemented in that community,” he says.
