- Residents of Khayelitsha’s SD shack area protested by barricading Mew Way Road, demanding the installation of communal taps and accusing their councillor of neglect.
- They rely on a water truck that only comes twice a week, leaving many without water.
- The community leader warned of more protests if their grievances aren’t addressed, while the councillor claimed he wasn’t informed of their concerns.
Irate shack dwellers of Social Distance (SD), Khayelitsha threatened to make the area ungovernable until the City responded to their grievances. They barricaded Mew Way Road with burning tyres and stones demanding service delivery in the area on Friday 16 August. They accused Ward 90 councillor Lukhanyo Simangweni of neglecting them.
Community leader Faith Mhlonyelwa said all that was needed was the installation of communal taps in the area. She said after four years little development was happening there.
“We depend on the City’s truck that brings water to us,” she pointed out. “The truck comes twice a week, only Wednesdays and Sundays. But what about the other days? And not all of us get the water because some of us are at work when the truck comes.”
According to Mhlonyelwa the protest marked the beginning of many others to come if the councillor doesn’t address the needs in the area. “It is difficult for the councillor to come to our areas and address us on what is going on. Last year three people – a mother and her two children – died in a shack fire as people watched because there was no water to extinguish the flames.”
Simangweni said it was news to him that the protest was about him.
He said the SD community had never come to him to address their grievances. “I fail to understand why the community leaders went out into the streets, instead of coming straight to me. They are well-informed about what is going on. I told them there are processes at the City that have to be followed. I told them, so they know.”
He said City officials would be visiting the area to survey it before installing communal taps, although he didn’t confirm when this would happen.
