A mass march through the streets, garbage piling up as municipal workers strike, rent boycotters defying eviction … Soweto this week was a township lurching out of control.
An eventful few days climaxed yesterday when:
- The 4 000 striking Soweto council employees marched through the streets. Security forces took action to disperse them – but the action cannot be reported in terms of Emergency regulations.
- Rent defaulters whose houses had been sold by the council defiantly ignored repeated attempts to evict them. “Comrades" helped them move back into their homes and stood guard to prevent anyone else moving in.
- Garbage piled up around the township, the result of the lack of municipal services during the month' long strike.
The strike erupted into mass protest yesterday when 4 000 municipal workers marched on the Soweto City, Council offices, reports THANDEKA GQUBULE
Marchers set off from the Roman Catholic Regina Mundi church – near the Old Potchefstroom Road, Soweto's main road – around 11am. When Weekly Mail arrived at the council offices in Jabulani about 11.30am, the crowd – a few hundred metres away – had swelled to about 4 000 as concerned residents joined strikers. Scores of military vehicles and troops with cocked guns were stationed around the council offices. Using a loudhailer, a policeman announced the gathering was prohibited under Emergency regulations. Although guns were pointed at them – from the council offices' roof and all angles of the building – the crowd surged forward singing freedom songs.
When the workers arrived at the gates of the municipal building they sat down. A negotiating team approached a Major Vrey at the gate. "We are here to negotiate," he told Vrey, asking to see town clerk Nico Malan. "Do you have an appointment?" Vrey asked. Another policeman announced that the gathering was illegal. At noon the police gave the workers an hour to disperse. When workers laughed the police changed their minds, and said: "20 minutes". The worker representative said the crowd would disperse on condition Malan came to address them. Ten minutes later police told the strikers Malan was not in the building and they should disperse at once.
he workers decided to return to Regina Mundi. But as they jogged in that direction – chanting slogans like "Cosatu" and "Are you scared of them, no we're not we want them" – security forces took action. That action cannot be reported in terms of Emergency regulations. The crowd scattered. Some people lit pieces of paper to counteract the effects of the security force action; some put handkerchiefs to their mouths, others wrapped jerseys around their heads. Approached for comment police liaison officer Captain Reg Crewe confirmed the confrontation but said it was "not a serious incident" and would be dealt with in the police unrest report today. Later, Captain RW Olivier repeated Crewe's statement and declined to discuss further details.
*The South African Municipal Workers Union is demanding an across-the-board 30 percent wage increase.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
