Download PDFIn a blink South Africa seems to be lighting up in flames with more and more kills happening around the country from the tavern shooting to armed robberies, of course, there are many stipulations from different communities but everything seems to be back-to-back and many disturbing things are happening.
From Monday the first of August 2022 the Tembisa residents have taken a stand and are striking for better conditions but more specifically because of the expensive electricity, the residents claim that they are being charged more for electricity than other townships in Ekurhuleni. The mob has been turning people from going to school and to work away and closing all the main roads, while others are very happy to not wake up in the morning to go and work for very little pay the others are not at all excited because they might lose their jobs. The mob has been demanding that the Ekurhuleni mayor comes and addresses them otherwise they will not be shut down and they will demonstrate until they are heard.
According to Times lives article by Kyle Zeeman the mayor strongly believes the actions of the community are influenced by something just like what happened in July of last year.
“There are external forces taking advantage of the situation. The same situation we saw in July last year when criminality took over real issues communities wanted to address. I will be in conversation with the provincial police commissioner and the premier on a resolution going forward,”
said Campbell.
“It was unfortunate because four lives were lost but we always lose soldiers at war and of course, no one deserves to die but the struggle eats some of the comrades and that always reminds us there are comrades we need to avenge or rather fight in spirit with.” Says one of the Tembisa residents who unfortunately according to safety reasons decided to stay anonymous.
“The mayor just has something to hide otherwise she would have addressed us by now and even better tried by all means to meet our needs.” The residents say.
The mayor however says she can never be in a lot of places all at once and that she can always send people on her behalf and not be there herself. The sad part about the whole demonstration is that some residents are left with no electricity as one of the electric stations was set alight. Eskom refuses to send engineers to the affected area due to the possible danger they might be faced with.
The actions of the Tembisa community were not a rare thing seeing as the working class has been fighting different struggles for a very long time. The solidarity is what also stood out in this demonstration as the different people from different households came together and built a wall to block roads. They stood united and worked together although some of the actions led to losing lives.
This article was submitted on 03 August 2022. You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Karibu! Online (www.Karibu.org.za), and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
