WATCH: Protests in Braam call for the mayor to step down

Residents, ratepayer associations, religious representatives, civil society organisations and more have gathered outside the City of Johannesburg council offices in Braamfontein to demand that Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and his MMCs resign immediately.

Protestors in Braamfontein. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

Protests have spilt into the streets of Braamfontein, demanding the removal of the mayor.

Several organisations and their followers joined forces to ‘dysfunction and maladministration across the city’.

The Joburg Crisis Alliance since 2013 has been actively fighting dysfunction and maladministration across the city through citizen engagement, debate and by holding various activations on several pertinent issues.

Dr Ferial Adam from Outa’s Water CAN says it is irrelevant that the mayor says our concerns are because he is a ‘black child’. “Whoever replaces him will not be based on race and there is every chance that person may be a black man, so it’s unfortunate he chose to attack us for that because race has nothing to do with it.

WATCH:

ALSO READ: Crisis Alliance demands mayor steps down or be removed

Neeshan Bolton from the Joburg Crisis Alliance has opened proceedings. Photo: Emily Bellman Bain

The central message they are driving home is their demand that the Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and his mayoral committee step aside or be removed. This follows from a press conference held at Constitution Hill on July 25 demanding the same.

Brandon Miller and Ciffy Smith from the Ennerdale Crisis Committee want the mayor and his executive to resign, to have rate increases scrapped and for the elderly to be looked after. Photo: Emily Wellman Bain

The group made up of civil society organisations like Outa, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Defend our Democracy, the Rivonia Circle, activists, thought leaders, residents associations, and more, say the building blocks for a concerted and long-lasting civic movement have been laid with this picket being its first, ‘mass action’.