Ward 89 councillor Monde Nqulwana has condemned the torching of a wellness hub clinic in Khayelitsha, on Thursday April 25, by protesters.
People of QQ Section in Site B, Khayelitsha, went rampant on the streets, torching the clinic and allegedly looting delivery trucks. The angry residents closed the Jafta Masemola Road with burning tyres and containers.
In condemning the protest, Mr Nqulwana said people behind this knew they were doing something wrong. He doubts that those who were behind the attack were from the area.
“For some reason they are repeating what they did in the last elections. These are criminals who want to disrupt the election, nothing else. People of QQ know very well where we are in terms of housing. So I do not believe for a second that they are behind this. I strongly condemn the acts of criminality here,” he said.
It is alleged that residents protested for houses after officials failed to visit them. But Mr Nqulwana said that is far from the truth. He called the protest appalling, because he had a public meeting with people of the area regarding the visit by City of Cape Town members.
Mr Nqulwana said the burning of a donated clinic should not have happened.
“ The wellness hub was able to help people test for HIV/Aids and other illnesses, pregnancy tests and family planning, and Pap smears. It is a donated structure by Doctors without Borders and the City of Cape Town.
“You can imagine now people will have to go long distances for things that were next to them. This thing is not about service delivery. It’s about thugs. The intention is to disrupt election day,” he said.
Mr Nqulwana said the City’s intention was to relocate people to available land. He said that would include residents of BM Section.
“It is appalling and disappointing that people would decide to launch some kind of criminal activity under the auspices of a service delivery protests. There are people hiding behind service delivery. They need to show their faces and not hide behind service delivery,” he concluded.
The QQ local committee secretary Linda Vuma dismissed that there is a third hand in the protest. She said it was done by QQ residents because they were tired of empty promises. She said the whole thing stems back to 2005. She said QQ residents have been promised of development and relocation but that has not happened until now.
“We had the protest because we are tired of empty promises. The same councillor promised that
we will meet the city officials but
kept on postponing that. We are
also of the view that this area can be electrified. Although we are not experts but there are areas where they have been electrified but they refuse us that,” she said. Ms Vuma from all the meetings they had
with the councillor with has never materialised.