RESIDENTS living along Mary Thipe Road in Manor Gardens are calling for 24-hour policing following a number of violent protests along the road this month.
Janus Horn, chairman of Mayville CPF Sector 1B in Manor Gardens, said a meeting was called last week with the Deputy Mayor, Metro Police, Land Invasion Unit and other stakeholders to address the protests and subsequent damage to properties in the road.
He said shack dwellers had caused chaos in the road during protests which started in September 2018.
Rubble had been left in the road, including black bags, tyres filled with faeces and tree branches and then set alight.
Street lights were also cut down and left in the road.
Protestors had gone on to vandalise and destroy water meters and electricity boxes on Mary Thipe Road on more than one occasion, leaving the residents vulnerable as they sat without electricity, no street lights, and people’s cellphone batteries and gate motors died leaving them with no access to their security companies.
Horn said protesters had also resorted to threatening homeowners, and during one of the many protests, a resident had been severely injured when bricks were thrown into her property.
“We are like sitting ducks here. These violent protests are taking place outside our homes and a nearby pre-primary school,” he said.
More than 100 homeowners attended the meeting with local authorities and, according to Horn, were very outspoken, saying they were fed up with the lack of services and subsequent devaluation of their properties.
He said deputy mayor, Fawzia Peer was unable to attend the meeting but had sent Terry Goulding from Metro Security in her place, as well as acting superintendent of Metro Police, Motsamai Dingaan and Capt Dave Danariah from Metro Police Crime Prevention. No SAPS representative was present.
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“Throughout the protests, Metro Police have been exceptional in responding and we are very grateful for this. They attend to complaints and remove the debris from the road after protests. I have now contacted the commissioner of police as we need intervention from their side. We are at the stage that we need police on the street 24/7,” he said.
Horn was concerned for the safety of children at nearby schools and worried that the protestors may move from targeting houses to the people living in the houses.
“Extra policing will come at a great cost, but we need to do what we need to do. We have been assured by Motsamai Dingaan that he will act on this, and Metro is working on getting four vehicles to cover the area. Metro really do go above and beyond,” he said.
Residents, he said, were sympathetic to the plight of shackdwellers and the problems they faced which impacted on their basic human rights, but did not support them breaking the law and destroying propety.
“The community is going to form a working committee to institute a class action suit to hold the municipality accountable if someone is hurt,” he warned.
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