CAPE TOWN, Western Cape — Hundreds of Khayelitsha residents marched to Parliament in Cape Town to demand urgent electricity and basic service delivery for their informal settlements, highlighting a decade-long crisis in communities like Monwabisi.
The demonstrators, hailing from Ward 99, marched through the Cape Town Central Business District to bring attention to the severe lack of electrification in their neighborhoods. However, the protest was marked by deep disappointment after community leaders discovered that no government representatives were available to receive their memorandum of grievances.
A spokesperson for the Committee of 49, who helped organize the march, expressed profound frustration over the empty reception at the legislative seat.
“As the Committee of 49, we’re here to raise our plight in so far as electricity is concerned,” the spokesperson said. “Our people would go for days, weeks, and even months with power outages, and Eskom would take months to respond to those issues.”
The community leaders had made prior arrangements for a representative to accept their petition, but were met with silence. “We were surprised today to be told that there’s no one that has been arranged from the office of the minister and also from the office of the president,” the spokesperson noted, adding, “I’m emotional as we speak. I’m disappointed that I had to lead my people… to come here and then get no response.”
A Decade Without Power
At the heart of the protest is a critical lack of infrastructure in rapidly growing informal segments. Residents report that New Monwabisi Park has been without electricity for nearly ten years. This prolonged deprivation has forced residents to resort to illegal power connections, which are now overloading the aging infrastructure of the older Monwabisi Park and even extending into formal settlements.
“The illegal connections are a consequence of the government failing for over 29 years,” one community representative stated, emphasizing that the issue extends far beyond the informal settlements. “We’ve been promised electricity each and every time we are expected to vote… and it’s just empty promises all the time.”
Public Protector Confirms Service Delivery Failures
The march is backed by recent findings from Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka, whose office recently concluded that the City of Cape Town has failed to deliver basic services to Langa Flats and Khayelitsha in accordance with the law and the Constitution.
Gcaleka’s comprehensive report painted a grim picture of the living conditions in these areas, citing widespread maladministration, poor sanitation, unsafe housing conditions, and failing infrastructure as systemic issues that continue to plague the communities.
Despite the urgency highlighted by the residents and the findings of the Public Protector, the Department of Electricity and Energy was not immediately available for comment regarding the community’s demands or the ongoing infrastructure backlogs.
