What started as Alexandra Shutdown has been spreading across the country, many communities are complaining about lack or no service delivery by their respective municipalities, provincial or national government.
There was a big protest in Pretoria West which prevented workers and students from going anywhere on Thursday. The demonstrations widened to one of the big township, Soshanguve, where the road was closed at Block L (Transfer). The protests are about service delivery.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader, Julius Malema, on Wednesday during a party press conference warned the African National Congress (ANC) that these protests will spread to every corner of the country even where the ANC is ruling. Malema accused the ANC of playing with the emotions of Alexandra residents because they are the one who are responsible for the prevailing conditions, he further accused Gauteng Premier David Makhura of knowing where the money of Alexandra Renewal went to because he simply said he would investigate.
Residents could not go to work or travel anywhere because the roads were barricaded with stones, there was no car passing in that road for the whole day.
Political Analysis South Africa (PASA) spoke to a local taxi driver, Matome Moremi, who says that the protest may be from good intentions by community leaders but the truth is that it affects mostly taxi drivers like him as well as other people in the small businesses. “This means that I wont have money to buy bread in the morning, my boss will also expect money despite the current situation” said Moremi
“Yes, we are ANC members but we are not closing the road because we want to remove the Democratic Allaince. We want the DA to attend to our issues, period.” Said Selinah Mkhize
The ANC lost City of Tshwane and City of Johannesburg to the DA in the 2016 local government elections; they were able to retain City of Ekurhuleni under the leadership of Mzwandile Masina.
There have been many protests around the country which includes Steiloop (Limpopo), Kroonstaad, Pennyville (Soweto), Alexandra, Bekkersdal, Tshwane, Khumwama (North West), Blackheath (Cape Town). The focal point is always lack of service delivery, it is clear that the communities have had those issues for more than two decades now.
DA councillor in the City of Tshwane did not give us the reaction as she promised.
Kenneth Mokgatlhe
k.mokgatlhe@politicalanalysis.co.za
