The Mamelodi branch of SANCO has warned City of Tshwane Metro workers employed at the municipality’s headquarters known as Mini Munitoria to take leave, this as the residents of Mamelodi will soon shut it down.
Moretele Park was flooded with more than 500 hundred residents of Mamelodi.
SANCO leadership reads a memorandum to the residents that they delivered on the 8 January 2025.
According to Mamelodi SANCO Deputy Zonal Secretary Thatohatsi Mogale, the decision to cause havoc at the Mini Munitoria was taken by residents of Mamelodi at a community meeting held on Sunday 2 February 2025 at the Moretele Park pleasure resort in the township.
He said the meeting made two resolutions, namely, to shut down the Mini Munitoria and embark on a rent boycott.
“We are definitely going to shut down Mini Munitoria and tyres will be burnt outside the Mini Munitoria and entrance they will be blocked to make sure that nothing happens there, so I advise those working at the Mini Munitoria to better take leave to avoid being caught in the crossfire,” said Mogale determinedly.
He said the Munitoria is where people pay rent, it is where residents report their issues, and it is where the memorandum of grievances was delivered by the residents of Mamelodi and accepted and signed by the City of Tshwane Metro officials on 8 January this year.
He said residents will be called to yet another meeting in due course, whereby the date of shutting down the Mini Munitoria will be announced.
Regarding the planned rent boycott, Mogale said residents want value for their money and can’t continue paying for something that they can’t see.
“We are therefore encouraging the residents of Mamelodi to stop paying rent until the Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and her office come up with a response to their grievances and an apology as to why they have delayed in their response to the memorandum,” he said.
“The Mayor and her office must apologise for treating residents of Mamelodi like fools because they promised to respond to the memorandum while in actual fact had no intention to do so,” said Mogale.
“The most burning issues here are the matter of the flat rate and the scrapping of rent debts across the board, and not only among the so-called indigents,” he said.
Some observers have told Tshwane Talks that the Municipality is trying to use the old-style “divide-and- rule” tactic by describing some debtors as indigents, while others are being described as recalcitrant debtors who can afford to pay but are refusing to do so.
President of Concerned Residents for Service Delivery in Mamelodi Oupa Mtshwene told Tshwane Talks that since the Mayor’s office has up until now failed to respond to the January 8 memorandum, the residents of Mamelodi have taken a decision to shut down Mini Munitoria until further notice and that they as the leadership won’t be able to stop them from doing so, because they are mere servants of the people and are overruled by their decisions.
“The Mayor has failed to respect the residents of Mamelodi and as a result they are very dissatisfied about her failure to respond to their demands,” lamented Mtshwene.
“We don’t know why people who regard themselves as public servants fail to show up at meetings when requested by the community to do so, yet when they seek votes during election time, they are quick to conduct door-to-door visits,” fumed Mtshwene.
“Residents are angry and we don’t know what will happen going forward, and regarding the decision to boycott rent, it is not us as leaders who put words in their mouths in this regard,” he said.
He said residents took these harsh measures against the Municipality because they are of the opinion that the Mayor and her deputy are disrespectful towards them and that it is only by shutting down the Mini Munitoria and boycotting rent that the Mayor and her Deputy will feel and acknowledge their presence as residents.
According to Mtshwene, residents of Mamelodi demand a R40 per month flat rate across the board and that all elderly pensioners must not pay any rent whatsoever.
Inwooners Bahlali Civic Movement (IBCM) leader David Ratladi, who hails from the Mabopane Winterveldt Ga-Rankuwa (MAWIGA) area, told Tshwane Talks that he attended the meeting to show solidarity to the suffering residents of Mamelodi who, like residents of MAWIGA area “are being defrauded by the City of Tshwane Municipality which uses estimations to bill them, and this is tantamount to extortion.”
He said all regions of Tshwane will soon embark on what he called a joint venture to march to the City of Tshwane end masse in protest against service delivery issues.
Meanwhile, Mamelodi SANCO Secretary Joseph Kgatle advised residents to zip their purses and not spend their money on rent but save it for themselves.
At the selfsame community meeting at Moretele Park pleasure resort, PCC chairperson Jack Simelane, told residents that if City of Tshwane officials come and switch their electricity off, residents must phone him, and he will switch the electricity on again by force.
This as he won’t allow any Municipality van to come and switch off electricity in the township.
To indicate his seriousness about his stance against electricity switch-offs, Simelani gave away his cellphone number so that those seeking help against officials who switch off their electricity would contact him easily.
He pleaded with the residents of Mamelodi to stand together and be united in their fight against imminent electricity switch-offs.
MK Party leader in Mamelodi Alpheus Sealetsa also spoke at the meeting.
“The rent issue is a nightmare to all the people of Mamelodi, be they rich or poor and we must make sure that it is resolved once and for all,” said Sealetsa.
He reminded the crowd that the 21 November 1985 Massacre happened as a result of residents being shot and killed because they were protesting against high rents.
He pointed out that the township of Mamelodi is billed unfairly by the City of Tshwane as compared to the suburbs because in the suburbs residents are billed according to actual consumption while in Mamelodi the Metro uses estimations.
After announcing that 21 November 2025 will be the 40th anniversary of the Mamelodi Massacre, he said residents must make sure that the Massacre is commemorated with the debts of all residents having been scrapped ” and being at zero-zero level.”
“As residents we have the power to show that the so-called debts are illegitimate and that some of them stem from 1985, the day of the Massacre,” he said.