Incensed residents of Eersterust in Tshwane brought the township to a standstill on Monday morning via an unprecedented strike action that resulted in workers not going to work, and learners not going to school.
The protest action stared in the wee hours of Monday with residents blockading several routes in the area with burning tyres and stones.
Even businesses and creches in the area didn’t operate.
The strike action is a result of Tshwane Ya Tima’s electricity cut-off campaign, whereby City officials last week disconnected electricity in Nantes, an area which is predominantly populated by elderly pensioners who depend on their monthly R2000 state grant and have to feed their children on that selfsame amount of money.
The residents emphasised that the municipality doesn’t give them any services but is quick to cut off the electricity of those who are indebted to it.
14 protestors were arrested during skirmishes between residents and the police, who used rubber bullets to disperse the angry residents.
56- year-old Audrey Sombrink, whose electricity was cut off last week, told Tshwane Talks that even if she would win money in the Lotto she would never pay her electricity bill as many people in the area were not paying their bills, were using illegally-connected electricity yet they don’t get cut off.
59-year-old resident Janet Williams told Tshwane Talks that her electricity was disconnected without prior notice.
She said the norm is that they must be given a notice before being disconnected.
“I used to work for the City of Tshwane in the past but I had to stop working after I was badly injured in a car accident and now I depend in a temporary disability grant and therefore can’t afford to pay the rent and the debt that I owe the municipality,” said Williams.
She said she has an unemployed daughter who lives in the backyard of her house with her own children and the little money that she gets from her disability grant goes towards feeding them.
Another resident admitted that she does not pay her written in the basis that she can’t pay for services that are not delivered to her.
An angry woman pointed out that she and other residents don’t have title deeds to their house and that this is unfair treatment on the part of the municipality.
A woman resident said she tried to make arrangements with the City of Tshwane but was told that she had to pay R25 000 upfront before any agreement can be entered into between her and the municipality.
“The City of Tshwane guys who come to cut off our electricity always seek a bribe from us in return for not cutting our services, but paying the bribe is of no use as the debt will always increase in the records of the municipality,” said a lady resident.
A concerned resident told Tshwane Talks that the electricity bill of R1 900 that she has to pay every month is unaffordable to her as she is not working.
She said there is a Municipality budget budget for maintaining the two-room housing structures in Eersterust but the City of Tshwane was not doing any maintenance on their two-room structures; compelling them to do any necessary repairs on their house by using their own money.
She insisted that since the said budget was not being used by the municipality, the municipality must use the money from that budget and scrap their debts.
A woman who lives with her elderly, ill mother told Tshwane Talks that she has resorted to using ground fire to cook especially as her mother must eat proper food before taking her medication for diabetes.
She pointed out that according to instructions from her mother’s doctors, some of her medicine must be stored in a refrigerator but as there is no electricity at the moment, she is forced to leave the medicine outside the house in the cold weather so that it doesn’t become warm.
She insisted that her mother has been paying her monthly rent consistently and that she is surprised to be informed that she owes rent to the municipality.
“The municipality guys came here last week and took away the electricity meter box claiming that it had been tampered with ( bridged),” said the irate woman, pointing out that her mother doesn’t know anything about the electricity meter box being bridged.”
Another woman told Tshwane Talks that after her electricity was cut off last week she tried to make arrangements for it to be reconnected but was told she has to fork out R28 950, plus R6000 reconnection fee regardless of the fact that she is a pensioner.
“The mayor must come to us elderly people and he will realise that there is no way we can afford to repay the debt that we owe the municipality, he must bring our electricity boxes back,” she said.
Local resident and member of South African Civics Association Clayton Laurie told Tshwane Talks that Eersterust residents have embarked in strike action as they are of the opinion that the City of Tshwane local government doesn’t have mercy on the elderly residents of Nantes in the area because it cut off light there without prior notice.
“How can the local government be so evil when it is supposed to look after the rights of its citizens,” he fumed.
“How can a pensioner who earns R2000 a month be expected to cough out R28000 when she wants to make arrangements with the municipality for her electricity to be reconnected?”asked Laurie.
He pointed out that preference in service delivery in Eersterust is often given to foreigners while South Africa- born residents are ignored, pointing out that many youths in the area depend on the pension money of the elderly to survive and that it is a pity that many if them are in drugs and authorities are doing nothing about it.
“The government is heartless towards the people of Eersterust as some of them still live under asbestos roofs and the rates for services here are too high and the government must do better for the people of Eersterust,” he said.
He said there is a Councillor who sits in the Council chambers on behalf of Ward 43 but nothing right is being done for the Eersterust community, pointing out that the municipality was only taking care of the suburbs where the environment is always clean, but that in Nantes there is a blocked, stinking drainage system that is stinking and has been out of order for three years now.
“My message to Mayor Cilliers Brink is that he must pull up his socks and do right by the people of Eersterust,” he said.
A woman resident told Tshwane Talks that she has been living in the squatter camp section of Eersterust since 2004, that she is on the housing waiting list but that there is no water and electricity at the squatter camp.
A male resident pointed out that government authorities always bring them food parcels yet they cut off electricity in the area.
“These people think we are always hungry, we are not hungry, we don’t need food or something else we need electricity,”
“As the Patriotic Alliance we stand with the community of Eersterust in their rightful demand for improved service delivery particularly regarding water and electricity,” said the Patriotic Alliance in a statement submitted to Tshwane Talks late on Monday evening.
“While we support the community’s demands, we do not condone the methods of protest that involve violence, damage to property or any form of illegal activity,” read the statement in conclusion.
“LASCA has noted the reaction of aggrieved residents of Eersterust on Monday and we know that their frustration is caused by the toxic DA-led Coalition government in Tshwane,” said the association’s chairperson Tshepo Mahlangu.
“The Eersterust residents are undermined, provoked and neglected by these people who are in power today and we hope that in 2026 the people of Eersterust will ensure that the DA and it’s coalition partners are dumped in the dustbin of history,” he said.
“If the people of Eersterust think this Tshwane Coalition government will hear or assist them, then they are hallucinating,” said Mahlangu emphatically.
Amid the chaos and mayhem in Eersterust, the City of Tshwane apparently still does not know why the residents of the area have embarked on strike action, this as it failed to answer queries by Tshwane Talks in this regard.
The questions were as follows: 1. Does the City of Tshwane know why the residents of Eersterust are protesting? 2. If so, what is it that they are protesting over or demanding and what is the City’s response to those demands.