With shovel in hand, an unemployed Hammanskraal teenager, Thabiso Raseroka, took to his neighbourhood’s streets on Wednesday, cleaning up the dirt and rubble scattered on the roads after two days of violent protests.
“I’m just trying to help the community. With the money motorists are giving me, I will buy food and cigarettes. I am unemployed and don’t have an income,” Raseroka told reporters at a busy intersection.
“I have been getting denominations like R5 and R10 from motorists. I will just keep working,” he said.
Several police vehicles were patrolling the the streets. Numerous roads were still scattered with rubble and motorists were negotiating their way through the piles of dirt.
Regarding the protests which left at least two people dead, Raseroka was pessimistic.
“Those people are wasting their time. I think they just have to move from the land,” he said.
On Monday, the Tshwane municipality issued a statement condemning the protest which was related to forced removals by eviction agency, the so-called Red Ants.
“The executive mayor of Tshwane Kgosientso Ramokgopa, received with a heavy heart, news of the violent protest that erupted in Hammanskraal and how it has deteriorated,” Tshwane spokesperson Blessing Manale said.
“This despite the progressive roll-out of various programmes including Re Aga Tshwane aimed at promoting security of tenure and rolling out services to enhance the quality of lives of citizens. We remain deeply concerned by the acts of violence, displacements, confrontations, loss of property and gross disregard, as well as violation of human rights every time evictions take place,” he said.
Manale said the city understood that the evictions “leave behind a trail of pain, which could be avoided and minimised, as we treated even those of our ungovernable citizens with respect rather than a sense of punishment”.
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