'Gatvol' residents threaten mayor
2010-03-10 08:15
Pretoria - Residents of Oukasie outside Brits on Tuesday called for Sophie Molokoane-Machika, executive mayor of the Madibeng municipality, to resign.
One of the approximately 5 000 protesters who took part in a march against poor service delivery on Tuesday morning, held a sign with the threat: "Ms Sophie, please step down before we kill you."
"We're gatvol," declared another sign.
Residents say the water is dirty, the roads are covered in potholes, the street lights don't work, the grass is overgrown and municipal buildings and areas are not maintained.
"This thing is very bad. We're struggling," said Emily Maseke, 43.
'Chaotic conditions'
The residents marched the few kilometres, singing and toyi-toying, from Oukasie to Madibeng's municipal offices to hand over a memorandum to Louisa Mabe, North-West MEC for finance.
The memorandum declares residents' disgruntlement about "the chaotic conditions" in the Madibeng area.
"The community is being denied its basic right to clean and safe water by criminals who use money intended for water purification to finance their lifestyles.
"The majority of council members and their buddy-buddy officials are stealing from the poor instead of addressing inequalities and job creation," states the memorandum.
Residents sang, danced and blew on vuvuzelas while they waited for Mabe in front of the municipal offices, amongst garbage which was dumped there two weeks ago.
A large group of armed police officials were present to keep the peace. The police air wing also flew above the area with a helicopter and a plane.
'Almost everything is wrong'
This came after a similar protest over service delivery got out of hand last week when the community couldn't get permission to go to the municipal offices.
Thato Molelekoa, 20, said "almost everything is wrong".
"There are potholes in the roads, the water is dirty and the sports fields are not maintained," he said.
"We want the mayor to resign because she has a feud against us.
"We want a white leader again, because the people of our race are destroying us. It's better if a white person fights for you."
Jaco Dercksen, chair of the Concerned Rate Payers Association (Corpa), said it's fantastic that so many people marched on the municipal offices.
"People have had it with the government. The government should know that people won't stop (protesting) until something is done."