Councils cannot finger sinister or ”third” forces for protests against the slow housing and service provision, and must shoulder some of the blame, says Western Cape minister for local government and housing Marius Fransman.
At the same time, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool told municipal mayors and managers at a workshop at Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, that they should find solutions ”rather than getting angry, getting anxious and looking for conspiracies”.
And in her budget speech this week, Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo said ”there is no excuse for the laggard pace of delivery”.
This week, Eastern Cape police also said there was no evidence of a third force behind recent protests in the Nelson Mandela Metropole. According to the Sunday Times, the National Intelligence Agency has been asked to investigate whether a secret force is behind the upheavals.
In Cape Town this week, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who burnt tyres at Happy Valley near Kommetjie as protests continued to spread. The spark appeared to be promises of housing in the nearby Masiphumelele township.
The unrest will be discussed at this Friday’s meeting of Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu and the nine provincial ministers, and was raised at Wednesday’s Western Cape Cabinet meeting.
At the workshop in Stellenbosch, Rasool told the mayors and municipal managers to examine their role in the protests. They were informed that unless there were extraordinary circumstances there was no reason not to tackle the province’s backlog of 320 000 houses or provide basic services. However, apart from the national and provincially funded R2,4-billion N2 Gateway Project, housing plans appear shaky.
At a press conference on Monday, African National Congress secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe said ”[a third force] is the least of our worries. Our concern is what have we not done; what has upset people so much?” He added that it would be ”unheard of” for national intelligence to investigate local protests.