Protesting Pretoria West residents in clashes with cops
13 July 2017
Pretoria – Close to a thousand protesting residents of Gomora informal settlement in Pretoria West have battled with police since the early hours of Thursday morning.
Police fired hails of rubber bullets, dozens of tear gas canisters, and stun grenades in a bid to keep the hostile protesters at bay.
Protesters returned fire with slingshots and threw stones at police Nyalas and members of the Public Order Policing on the ground. They also chased after journalists, pelting them with stones.
It was still unclear what the protest was about, but they called for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Paul Mashatile to address their issues.
"We are going to kill you guys," a protester shouted.
Several roads were blocked with burning tyres and stones.
A police contact said that more than 1 000 protesters had caused "complete chaos" since the early hours of Thursday morning.
Residents from Gomora have demanded that Mashatile address their issues of service delivery.
One resident who did not want to be named, said they were promised basic services such as electricity, tarred roads, water and sanitation.
"We are fed up and want the MEC who promised us service delivery," said one resident.
Another said they have had many community meetings to find a way to get government to address their needs.
Police spokesperson Constable Tumisang Moloto said several roads were blocked and four cars and a truck were torched by protesting residents.
He could not confirm how many residents were protesting, but said the Gomora informal settlement housed around 20 000 people.
Mashatile will not be coming and a representative from his office will be addressing the community instead.
