Here are the reasons behind the recent unrest in the Cape Town suburb.
Last week Tuesday, 1 May 2018 violent protests sprang up in the Cape suburb Mitchells Plain. The unrest lasted throughout the week. There was one fatality and two serious injuries resulting from these protests.
Why are residents protesting?
Residents of the informal settlements Siqualo and Rondvlei, which neighbour Mitchells Plain, took to the streets to address the harsh living conditions these areas face.
After politicians paid visits to these areas for Workers Day rallies on Tuesday 1 May, residents felt that it was time to initiate much-needed change.
The main grievance raised by protesters is the lack of service delivery to the area. According to residents there is no electricity, a scarce water supply and no rubbish removal in Siqualo.
Protesters made it known that they felt violent shows of protest were the only way to get politicians to sit up and take notice.
Protesters burnt tyres and engaged in physical conflicts with residents of Mitchells Plain who felt disgruntled over the disruptions in the area.
These disruptions included the torching of ATM at a filling station, as well as a shop and truck. A number of roads also had to be shut down.
A twenty-one-year-old man was killed when a taxi ploughed through a crowd of protesters. Two others were injured in a shooting.
Approximately thirty people were arrested during the protest action.
Why the lack of services?
Siqualo informal settlement has been built on privately owned land. The City of Cape Town has not acquired the owner’s permission to access this land according to the MMC for Informal Settlements, Xanthea Limberg.
Limberg also had this to say:
“We haven’t been given permission to access the land, so the services that we can currently render for the Siqalo residents are temporary services. We have basically a one-on-one toilet ratio because we have 200 temporary toilets as well as 2000 portable flush toilets which we have issued.”
And,
“Because we haven’t obtained access through the private land owner, we haven’t been able to install formal electrification for example.”