[image source:Bas de Vos]

The Republic has been rocked these past few days, residents angered by the City’s failure to deliver on their promises boiling over into violent protests.

We’re going to show you some of the pictures and videos doing the rounds, but we’re also going to show you why residents felt the need to resort to such drastic measures.

For those wondering, this was posted on the Hout Bay Organised Facebook page at around 8AM:

Main Road SAPS circle still blocked from Disa River Rd to Payne and Valley Rd circle.

Suikerbossie and Valley to the Nek open.

First up, via LekkerBlog, some of what went down yesterday:

How Valley Road was blocked:

These via Twitter user Athi Mtongana, show the damage at the Kronendal Retirement Village and cars in the area:

Via News24, some footage of the overturned vehicles:

This from Times LIVE:

Violence and destruction of property should never be condoned, but one must also understand the reasons behind these frustrations boiling over.

Here’s a pretty good summary from Christian Putsch on Facebook, who spoke to a community leader called Deborah.

I’ll put the video below, but here is the text that comes with it:

She is one of the 300 people living there and agreed to show me around, you can see what she has to say in the video below. We (and that includes me) probably all disagree with the way they are protesting, but at the same time we should consider their living conditions.

The fire happened on 11 March. Deborah says that Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, promised to provide housing with electricity, water and proper shack-structures within three months. That time has long past, Deborah says nothing substantial happened even though the community leaders were engaged in peaceful negotiations from day 1. A lot what has been happening in Hout Bay since Saturday has to do with terrible expectation management from the council.

What made things worse is the fact that other victims of the fire were not stopped from rebuilding in Imizamo Yethu by the city. They used up some of the space where the shacks of the people on the soccer pitch used to stand, which effectively punishes them for sticking to the citys’ emergency plan. The people on the soccer pitch were not given the resources to protect the informal shacks against the rain, it is very wet on the field so their belongings were literally swimming during the rains of the last couple of weeks – residents told me it is way worse than living up the mountain in Imizamo Yethu even though this area is also affected by water running down the mountain.

There is no electricity on the soccer pitch, people can’t cook in their houses due to safety regulations imposed by the city. Many have to share a 9sqm shack with several strangers.

Deborah has been living in Imizamo Yethu since the township was started in the 90s, the same applies to most of the others suffering on the soccer pitch, she says. She also told me she understands the frustrations of the community of Hout Bay and appreciates the help of everybody who donated time and goods after the big fire, but also says she sees no other way to have their voices heard. I stand under correction and I know that many are still supporting But maybe in general we stopped to soon and did not support the struggle of dealing with the administration enough, which can be particularly challenging for people in an informal environment.

Again, I am in no way defending the violence used during the protests. But the situation is complex and we should put as much pressure as possible on the council to find a sustainable solution to bring the living conditions of these people at least to the standard before the fire.

Deborah in her own words:

That’s a situation that everyone can surely empathise with, even if the violent nature of the protest is alarming.

Patricia de Lille did address the protesters yesterday, with this via IOL:

De Lille said the City remained committed to rebuilding Imizamo Yethu.

“We are going to speed up the reblocking,” De Lille said among a heavy police presence. “We can understand people are very frustrated, but as we have said to you in the past, we are trying to rebuild and reblock people living on the mountain. And it has been difficult. But we are going to make sure that the reblocking takes place in Dontse Yakhe, Shooting Range and Madiba Square at the same time.”

…In response to the violent protests, De Lille said that there were now some residents who were resorting to criminal behaviour and that the city could not condone this.

“The City is doing all it can to communicate to the community leadership so that progress can continue in the area, however, we cannot be held to ransom by the anarchy caused by some residents,” De Lille said.