Johan Lottering of Montgomery Park waved a board proclaiming “Hoot for better service”. He said he had been spurred into action after experiencing an average of 48 hours without electricity every week “over and above normal load-shedding”.
“We don’t just want an end to load-shedding. We need someone to put an end to all the extended cuts that last a day or longer,” said Dilshud Jaffer.
Mohamed Suliman said it was not only power outages that required attention, but service delivery issues in general.
“We’ve had to have a water leak repair in Sir John Adamson, which is a main road through the area. They had to dig up part of the road to do the repairs so they blocked the road completely. It’s been three weeks and it’s still closed off. Why can’t they fix things and open the road?”
Speaking to the gathering through a loud speaker, group spokesperson Michael O’Donovan said: “We are indeed in trouble. It’s no longer business as usual. Unfortunately one protest is not going to do anything. We have to fight the city to do its job and maintain our infrastructure or we all might as well go overseas or move to Cape Town.
“Things are getting worse, and it’s happening rapidly.”
Many agreed. O’Donovan told TimesLIVE “the straw that broke the camel’s back that came on top of a pile of service delivery challenges was multiple long outages in multiple suburbs in the past two weeks left numerous households without electricity for up to two days.
“The City of Joburg is imposing rates increases and the price of electricity is going up but the value of our properties is going down. We are demanding the council starts responding to ratepayers. We will be doing more protests and are hoping to build a swell of support for a rates boycott if it has to come to that.”
O’Donovan said the winter morning protest had been called for through suburban WhatsApp groups covering a small area over a short time, and had quickly gained strong support. The group that emerged, he said, was diverse and not affiliated to any political party.
Joburgers interested in joining the group can register their interest by e-mail to maodonovan@gmail.com.
TimesLIVE
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Gatvol of the dark, Randburg residents take action
'If the council won’t listen, we are heading for a rates boycott,’ they say
Image: Gill Gifford
Anger and frustration over load-shedding in the suburbs spilled over into action on Friday morning in Randburg in Gauteng when residents took to the streets to protest.
Armed with placards and wrapped up warmly, a few dozen disgruntled people took to busy Beyers Naude Drive at the Preller Road intersection to demonstrate their discontent. While metro police watched, they waved posters and gestured to traffic, prompting passing motorists to slow and hoot their support.
Johan Lottering of Montgomery Park waved a board proclaiming “Hoot for better service”. He said he had been spurred into action after experiencing an average of 48 hours without electricity every week “over and above normal load-shedding”.
“We don’t just want an end to load-shedding. We need someone to put an end to all the extended cuts that last a day or longer,” said Dilshud Jaffer.
Mohamed Suliman said it was not only power outages that required attention, but service delivery issues in general.
“We’ve had to have a water leak repair in Sir John Adamson, which is a main road through the area. They had to dig up part of the road to do the repairs so they blocked the road completely. It’s been three weeks and it’s still closed off. Why can’t they fix things and open the road?”
Speaking to the gathering through a loud speaker, group spokesperson Michael O’Donovan said: “We are indeed in trouble. It’s no longer business as usual. Unfortunately one protest is not going to do anything. We have to fight the city to do its job and maintain our infrastructure or we all might as well go overseas or move to Cape Town.
“Things are getting worse, and it’s happening rapidly.”
Many agreed. O’Donovan told TimesLIVE “the straw that broke the camel’s back that came on top of a pile of service delivery challenges was multiple long outages in multiple suburbs in the past two weeks left numerous households without electricity for up to two days.
“The City of Joburg is imposing rates increases and the price of electricity is going up but the value of our properties is going down. We are demanding the council starts responding to ratepayers. We will be doing more protests and are hoping to build a swell of support for a rates boycott if it has to come to that.”
O’Donovan said the winter morning protest had been called for through suburban WhatsApp groups covering a small area over a short time, and had quickly gained strong support. The group that emerged, he said, was diverse and not affiliated to any political party.
Joburgers interested in joining the group can register their interest by e-mail to maodonovan@gmail.com.
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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