Panic buying and violent protests after power failure in Port Elizabeth

Residents thought municipality to blame

By Joseph Chirume
16 May 2017

Protesters blocked roads in Motherwell on the weekend after a prolonged electricity failure. Photo: Joseph Chirume.

Protests in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, turned violent on Saturday after residents were left without electricity from Friday. Electricity was restored on Sunday. A vehicle was torched and all major roads into the township blocked with burning tyres and debris. Five cars were badly damaged.

Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said, “Over the weekend it was a cable fault that led to the blackout. Fixing it took time.”

On Monday, residents were again without electricity for two hours after a circuit breaker at Motherwell South substation tripped, according to Mniki.

Police spokesperson Andre Beegte said a case of public violence had been opened but there had been no arrests.

During the protests, a young boy, holding stones in both his hands, said, “This place will soon be ungovernable … We will only open this road when electricity is restored. No car will pass this area or we will burn both the driver and their car.”

Thoko Amanzi, a mother of two who works as a mechanic in Uitenhage, said, “The residents are justified to protest, but I don’t condone the destroying of property. It is very expensive to buy a car only to see it being burned to ashes by an angry mob that has issues with their municipality. I don’t support this violent behaviour. We should only protest peacefully.”

She said, “We were caught unaware by this blackout. I had stashed my deep fridge with food stuff to last the entire month. I have had to throw away the food to dogs because it was smelling badly … Where will I get money to replace that food? I only get paid at the end of the month and there are two weeks remaining.”

She said she was hoping to join other residents to seek compensation from the municipality.
Residents scrambled to buy candles and paraffin at spaza shops. Bread and milk also soon vanished from shelves.

Mohammed Musa, who owns a spaza shop in NU8, said, “We quickly ran out of stock. Residents were buying in panic. Bread, candles, matches as well as paraffin quickly sold out. We also sold a lot of drinks and tinned food as some residents did not have time to cook on their own. The situation reminded me of a war zone where people buy in bulk to stockpile food.”

Musa said they could not restock their shelves because “we were afraid that our vehicles would be stoned. So we ended up turning away hungry customers. By Sunday morning, I had run out of food stuffs.”

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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In Photos - Eldorado Park explodes over lack of houses and jobs

“There is no future for the youth here”

By Ihsaan Haffejee
9 May 2017

A resident tries to calm the situation in Eldorado Park on Monday, but without any success as the violence escalated. All photos: Ihsaan Haffejee

Residents from Eldorado Park and Freedom Park protested over the lack of housing and jobs on Monday. The protest turned violent; residents and police had running battles along the Golden Highway which runs through both suburbs.

Shaun Jacobs a young protester explained what set off the protests: “There’s no development in this area. There is no future for the youth here. Why do you think so many people from here get involved in selling drugs and stealing? It’s because there are no opportunities.”

Protesters broke a road sign and used it as a shield against police.

Earlier residents blockaded the Golden Highway as well as the N12 and N1 highways which led to traffic congestion for people leaving the southern suburbs on their way to work. Police managed to unblock the highways but the Golden Highway remained shut to traffic well into the late afternoon. In the morning commuters were seen making u-turns and heading home as all exits out of the suburbs were blocked.

Police opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Protesters from the two suburbs joined forces as they attempted to push police back. They were armed themselves with stones and petrol bombs. Police retaliated by firing rubber bullets and teargas into the crowd. A few tear gas canisters landed in houses causing panic among the people living in them. Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) flying squad also entered the fray when reports of the looting of a nearby Shoprite surfaced. The SAPS flying squad members charged the crowd armed with live ammunition, with a few rounds being fired into the air. A commanding officer withdrew the flying squad members and opted instead to utilise members of the Public Order Police who are trained for crowd control.

Protesters and police had running battles.

Residents used shields to protect themselves from rubber bullets and teargas cannisters, and they threw stones at police.

Elija Williams said that the pleas of the communities were ignored by government. He accused politicians of only visiting the area when votes are needed to win elections. “My grandmother died living in a shack. I’m most probably going to die living in a shack. I don’t want my child to also have to live their entire life in a shack with no electricity,” said Williams.

Some schools in the area had to close and learners were sent home due to the escalating violence. Some learners cried on the side of the road crying after inhaling teargas fired by the police.

Some learners were overcome with teargas.

Residents vowed to continue to protest until Gauteng Human Settlement MEC Paul Mashatile came to the area to listen to their grievances. Protesters vented their frustrations at both local and national government with some calling for the resignation of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba while other could be heard chanting “Zuma must fall”. Later in the afternoon Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane visited the area calling for calm to be restored. She confirmed that the Shoprite, Spar and BP garage were looted and that twelve people were arrested. 

A man lies injured on the ground.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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In photos: Cape Town’s water crisis

Perilous state of city’s water supply is starkly visible

Text by Trevor Bohatch. Photos by Ashraf Hendricks.
15 May 2017

Retreating water levels at Theewaterskloof Dam have left dying plant life behind. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

This is part one of a GroundUp special series on Cape Town’s water crisis. 

There are six major dams in Cape Town; Berg River, Steenbras Lower, Steenbras Upper, Theewaterskloof, Voëvlei, and Wemmershoek. These hold 99.6% of the city’s water capacity, with eight smaller dams, mostly on Table Mountain, responsible for a mere 0.4%. Theewaterskloof is the largest of the six major dams, with a total capacity of 480,188 megalitres. It is responsible for storing more than half of Cape Town’s surface water supply.

As of Monday 15 May, the level of Theewaterskloof was just 15.7%, compared to close to 31.3% at the same time last year, 51.3% in 2015, and 74.5% in 2014. Across the six dams the levels were a mere 21.2%, a record low.

Last year June, GroundUp reporters visited some of the dams and photographed them. We returned last week (11 May). Caution: these photos are not taken at the same time of the year, so they are not directly comparable for understanding the drop in the dam levels. GroundUp is intending to eventually have a set of directly comparable photos.

Theewaterskloof Dam in October 2010 was over 90% full. Photo from Google Maps

From a similar position as the above photo, you can see how low Cape Town’s biggest dam was in June 2016. Photo: Masixole Feni

Theewaterskloof dam on 11 May 2017. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

If you zoom in on the photos above, you can see yellow verticle markers on the right side of the concrete column. There are four more visible in May 2017 than in June 2016.

This view shows how low Theewaterskloof is. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The Berg River Dam is the third largest dam supplying the city, behind Theewaterskloof and Voëlvlei. The dam was at 33% of capacity last week, higher than the 27% this time last year, but much lower than the 54% level in 2015, and 90.5% in 2014.
Though the dam wall currently stores more than 42,000 megalitres of water, parts of the reservoir are dry. In areas of the dam higher up, GroundUp reporters were able to walk across the reservoir from one bank to another. There is no sign of plant or animal life at the dam and the earth was cracked in places due to arid conditions.

The Berg River is so dry in places that you can walk across it. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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Protesters demand secret ballot for Zuma

Constitutional Court hears argument on how Parliament should vote

Unlikely allies: DA and EFF supporters marched together to the Constitutional Court on Monday

Thousands of people marched from Mary Fitzgerald Square to the Constitutional Court today. They wanted the Constitutional Court to rule that the Parliamentary vote of no confidence in President Jacob Zuma should be a secret ballot.

South Africans across the class, race and political spectrum came together in Newtown at the beginning of the protest.

Many protesters wore signs showing their displeasure with the president.

A man wears a mask as he dances at Mary Fitzgerald square before the start of the march.

By Ihsaan Haffejee

No garbage collected in Marikana for nine months

City says settlement is on private land and it cannot provide the service

One of the two sections in Marikana where residents dump rubbish. Garbage has not been collected since August last year. Photo: Thembela Ntongana

According to residents, rubbish has not been collected in Marikana since August last year.

“We have been writing to the City [of Cape Town] as well as our ward councillor asking for plastic bags and containers, but nothing [has happened]. The place is just getting worse,” says community leader Sipho Tofile.

The informal settlement has 6,000 people in six sections listed A to F. Tofile says people have no other option, but to dump their rubbish. Piles of garbage fill two open spaces, one used by sections A to C and another by sections D to F.

Tofile says, “It is difficult to even get into the toilets because the rubbish is slowly piling up in front of them. Even the people that clean them are complaining.”

Resident Zolile Hamnca says that when it’s windy, the rubbish spreads all over the place.

“Children play here because they see an open space, and we also see animals eating this dirt,” says Hamnca.

He says every time they request assistance from the City, they are told it cannot be provided because Marikana is on private land.

Marikana residents occupied the property in 2014 and are currently awaiting judgement in a court case in which the landowners want the state to buy them out or compensate them.

“How do they choose what not to provide and what to provide?” asks Hamnca. “Because other services, like toilets, we get, but we cannot get plastic bags and containers?”

Residents also point out that the City has previously collected rubbish.
By Thembela Ntongana