Fleurhof residents blocked roads with burning tyres on Tuesday. Photos: Silver Sibiya
By Silver Sibiya
Hundreds of protesters from Fleurhof, west of Johannesburg, took to the streets early on Tuesday morning, demanding the government build schools, a clinic and a police station in their area.
They blocked busy Main Reef Road and Helpmekaar Road with burning tyres, wood, rocks and bricks. Schoolchildren also joined the protest. At least ten police cars were present.
The Fleurhof project is one of the City of Johannesburg’s residential mega projects, launched in 2012. It includes RDP houses, social rented housing, and houses on the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) for families earning between R3,500 and R22,000 a month.
“We don’t have schools, a police station, clinics, a community hall,” said community leader Selby Leshaba. “There are no sports facilities. Our community members are suffering because those things are essential things, and the developer and the government never provided those things, and that is why today’s protest is taking place.”
He said in May 2023 they held a protest and submitted a memorandum to then-Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda but nothing had happened.
“The government has ignored us, and they were not negotiating with us in good faith.”
He said the protesters wanted further developments in the area to stop until their demands had been met.
“We still don’t have schools. The developer is just building flats and flats after flats and flats after flats. We are tired of that. We no longer want flats. We want infrastructure that this community will be proud of.”
Resident Teboho Hlalele said it was urgent for schools and clinics to be built. The police station, in neighbouring Florida, was short-staffed, Halele said.
“Florida police station already, on its own, does not have the capacity to handle the kind of population we have, hence the crime in Fleurhof has skyrocketed.”
Grade 11 learner Tshegofatso Leshaba said she had to get up at 4am to catch a bus to school in Florida Park. “I would be happy if we got a school in our area,” she said.
City of Johannesburg Speaker Nobuhle Mthembu arrived to listen to the protesters. She said some of the issues raised were matters for the provincial government and there would be a meeting with provincial government representatives on Wednesday. Meanwhile, she said, she would brief the acting mayor and give him the memorandum.
Protesters say they need clinics, schools, a police station, sports grounds, and a community hall.
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Source: AFP
Picture: GroundUp
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