Ebony Park community members along with the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), Region A Business Forum, and South African Communist Party (SACP) among others marched to the newly opened Ebony Park Mall to submit a memorandum of their grievances on 30 January.
The residents claim that the owners of the mall have been manipulating them and did not meet any of the promises they said they would deliver on as part of growing the community.
One of the protesters, Lebo Mochobo said that the reason he joined the march is because people in Ward 80 are not working. “This mall is built under Ward 80 and the management hires people from places like Soweto, Daveyton and Germiston, whilst our community members have no jobs. Now our youth end up being involved in drugs and being thugs, so what we want is for our residents to work.”
Richard Mdlalose, leader of the SACP in greater Johannesburg, added that when there is a job opportunity, first priority must be the local people. “Secondly, those who have small businesses have been left out, the mall owners have taken over everything, and in terms of ploughing back to the community, what are they doing?
“We want them to build a community library and community hall that will assist the society, so young people are skilled and taken away from the streets where they are motivated to take drugs.”
After receiving the memorandum, Andries Tlouamma, co-owner of the mall, said that they do accept and acknowledge the memorandum. “We will go through it because this is our community we have to live with each other, we will definitely respond or call a meeting so we can discuss all the issues that have been tabled in the memorandum so we can respond.
“But there are other issues which I think we will first need to see what the issues are and who is involved so we can respond as soon as possible because we really do not want this, we want to live in peace with all our people.”
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