eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede has poured cold water on allegations that she snubbed displaced residents of the Foreman Road informal settlement on Thursday – who later started a small scale riot in Sydenham in response.
Residents took to the streets on Thursday afternoon‚ complaining that Gumede had reneged on an agreement to meet with them.
Gumede’s spokesman‚ Mthunzi Gumede‚ said the mayor had been scheduled to meet the residents‚ who were left homeless by a shack fire that had swept through the settlement at the weekend.
“There was an opening of a sporting complex which was planned and had already been postponed three times. We decided to reschedule for the evening and then we heard there was a strike‚” he said.
“There is no issue … the mayor will go there at some point but yesterday there were things that came up.”
There was a team from the city‚ he said‚ that had been working all week with those affected by the fire.
Riot police on Thursday clashed with residents who had blockaded Clare Road‚ which runs adjacent to the shack settlement. Hundreds of displaced shack dwellers dragged rubbish and trees onto the busy arterial road‚ obstructing traffic.
Riot police forced the group to disperse‚ using teargas and stun grenades.
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