Diepsloot residents barricade the road during a service delivery protest. Picture: Masi Losi/African News Agency (ANA) Archives
Pretoria - Aggrieved Diepsloot residents are threatening to intensify their protest if the Presidency fails to respond to their demands in the next 24-hours.
Last week, residents went on a two day protest over crime in the area and demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa come to the area and address their grievances.
A delegation of community leaders visited the office of the Presidency to request Ramaphosa to visit the community.
Speaking to eNCA on Monday, the leaders said they were unhappy with Monday's response from the government and described it as an insult.
“We are totally not happy with this acknowledgement letter, this is nonsense because they were supposed to send it last week immediately after coming out of the meeting.
“But now when we are expecting time-frames, they are giving us an acknowledgement letter and they are expecting us to give this thing to community members. I think we are highly disrespected here,” said one of the leaders.
According to the local Community Police Forum (CPF), criminals and illegal immigrants have been terrorising the community for far too long, and as a result, they have lost faith in Police Minister Bheki Cele because he has failed to provide long-term solutions in resolving the alarming crime rate in the area.
After receiving the letter from the Presidency, community leaders addressed residents and encouraged them to continue protesting until their demands are heard.
The leaders said they will engage in the protest after attending a memorial service of a CPF member who was gunned down two weeks ago.
The memorial service will be held on Tuesday.
“We want to give the Presidency two days of havoc, two days of war, two days of burning tyres, two days of closing N14, two days of destroying everything,” said one of the leaders.
IOL