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Residents protested in the informal settlement of Sicelo in Midvaal, Gauteng, yesterday as the community became increasingly angry over a spate of murders in the area over the past two months.
On Monday, the body of a 17-year-old girl was found next to her shack.
“There have been women who were kidnapped, raped and murdered. We found them in the bushes,” said Teenage Gumbe of the newly formed political party African Civil Revolutionary Movement (ACRM).
Gumbe said none of the perpetrators had been arrested.
“We found out that there have been 59 people murdered in our township due to the unsafe environment in the past year,” he said.
“On February 24, a woman who had been raped and hacked to death was buried. But nobody has been arrested. Today [yesterday], we buried the 17-year-old.”
The march was organised according to the law, and the community members handed their list of demands to ward councillor Mike Ndebele and Midvaal Local Municipality mayor Bongani Baloyi.
The informal settlement has no running water or electricity.
“For more than two decades, the DA has been in power, but our people still don’t have toilets, running water or electricity,” Gumbe said.
He said that, according to the police, only one police vehicle was available to serve the area.
Ndebele said that, as a ward councillor, he didn’t have the power to meet the community’s list of demands because it was an issue for the mayor to deal with.
Baloyi could not be reached for comment.
