It is now cool and calm in Eesterust, Tshwane after a day of mayhem and upheaval on Monday.
Several community leaders in the area met together on Tuesday morning to call for a stop to the violence that brought Eersterust to a standstill on Monday, with creches, businesses and schools not operating and workers being unable to go to work.
But on Tuesday almost every aspect of life was back to normal.
The aforesaid community leaders told Tshwane Talks that in as much as they themselves supported the residents in their protest, they are totally opposed to the use of violence and destruction of property that manifested itself on Monday in Eesterust.
One of the leaders pointed out that by destroying infrastructure the protestors were setting the community back as it would take a long time before the municipality and the government did repairs to damaged property in the area.
Another leader pointed out that in 2018 several traffic lights were damaged during protest action by the community, and those traffic lights have not been replaced to date.
“There are people who used debris, rocks and all sorts of things to shut down all exits and entrances to Eersterust yesterday to prevent people from going to school or work, and as Councilor I didn’t come out to negotiate or plead with anyone as the whole event was pure criminal,” said Ward 43 Councilor Benjamin Lawrence.
“Some people just decided to show that they have power and use the vulnerability of our community to administer chaos,” he said, pointing out that the community of Eersterust won’t allow itself to be bullied by criminals and that Monday’s events had nothing to do with service delivery.
He emphasised that as much as people have the right to protest, other people also have the right not to protest.
“I am not aware of elderly people whose electricity has been cut off because the elderly always contact me when they have problems with electricity, therefore anyone whose electricity meter box got confiscated means they had tampered (bridged) the meter box,” enthused Lawrence.
He denied accusations by some community members that when they challenge him for failure to deliver services to the community, he threatens them with unleashing the might of the infamous Mamelodi-based Boko Haram bandits on them.
“My message to my fellow resident’s in Eersterust is that we should please not allow this type of criminality to block our people from doing what they need to do on a daily basis because the freedom that we fought for is exactly this that we should be able to do whatever we want and go wherever we want without fear of violence or intimidation, so we must all stand together against this type of behaviour and yes we can critisies and protest in a proper manner but lets us not disrupt and destroy our beautiful community,” said ward councilor Lawrence.
Patriotic Alliance PR Councilor Debyre Williams-Moses told Tshwane Talks that as community leaders they met to quell the violence that engulfed Eersterust on Monday.
She said the criminality that took place during Monday’s protest action overshadowed the community’s real demands.
“Fortunately, we made sure that the local Pick ‘n Pay store and the Civics Centre don’t get damaged in the illegal strike action of Monday,” she said.
“The leadership of the City of Tshwane has informed me that they won’t be summoned to Eersterust by means of violence and we as the Eesterust community do not condone the violence that took place yesterday,” she said.
“Eersterust is a township but residents here are billed by the municipality as if they live in a suburb,” said Williams-Moses as she pointed out that genuine service delivery issues in Eersterust must be attended to by the municipality.
Williams-Moses revealed that security is now tight in the Eersterust vicinity as there are police and private sector security guards keeping an eye on the community so as to protect the community’s infrastructure and give our people a peace of mind that they can come and go into Poort( Eersterust) peacefully, and that we are actually not as reactionary and violent as was the case yesterday,” she said.