Police arrested seven protesters at Soweto’s Jabulani hostel alone on Saturday for public violence in a demonstration over housing. Arrests were also made elsewhere in Soweto and in Alexandra, but the exact numbers were not yet known.
Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said rubber bullets were fired to disperse a crowd of protesters from the Nancefield and Dobsonville hostels on Saturday morning. ”We had to use rubber bullets to get them off the roads,” he said. ”Five cars were damaged when they were stoned at the Nancefield hostel.”
Hostel dwellers took to the streets of Soweto at 4.30am on Saturday, blockading roads with rocks and burning tyres. Train services between Johannesburg and Soweto ground to a halt when protesters damaged sections of the track. In Denver, hostel dwellers reportedly threw petrol at motorists using the M2 highway.
Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo condemned the disruptions at the Jabulani, Nancefield, Dube, Dobsonville, Mzimhlope, Jeppe, Denver George Goch and Alexandra hostels.
There is ”absolutely no justification” for acts of vandalism, criminality and savagery at protests about ”alleged poor service delivery”, as the government provides for legitimate forms of protest. ”Any action outside of such legitimate means opens the whole society to acts of anarchy and barbarism,” said Masondo.
Calling on the people of Johannesburg and elsewhere to unite against any form of lawlessness, he said they cannot ”allow these acts of anarchy to be perpetuated in the name of our communities”.
Masondo, who chairs the South African Local Government Association, said municipalities will remain focused on ensuring service delivery and development to improve people’s quality of life.
Under control
By Saturday afternoon, police had brought the situation at the hostels and the Intlanzane, Merafe and Dube railway stations under control.
”The crowds are no longer there, but it is not safe for motorists to use the roads,” Minnaar said of the situation in the roads in Jabulani.
Metrorail told the South African Broadcasting Corporation some rail services had been restored.
Jabulani hostel residents, who massed most of the morning in anticipation of an address by a housing department official, returned to the hostel early in the afternoon when it became apparent this was not going to take place.
The Democratic Alliance, meanwhile, charged that Gauteng’s ”housing chickens” had come home to roost. The protests show the loss of credibility of Gauteng’s housing department, said spokesperson Kate Lorimer, accusing it of ”over-promising and under-delivering”.
”Unrealistic housing targets and wild election promises by the African National Congress have raised expectations that could not be fulfilled even if the department was properly managed,” she said.
Poor project management means problems cannot be detected early on, often lingering until communities take to the streets. Tenders are often given out on political criteria ”rather than according to competence”, she charged, adding that the secrecy of the housing lists invites corruption.
”The Gauteng housing department must change the way it operates. It must start playing open cards with the communities it is supposed to be serving and must focus on delivery to those communities rather than to its political friends,” she said. — Sapa