Cape Town highway blocked over access to water and toilets
People living along the N2 near Mfuleni want the City to include them in its budget
People living along the N2 highway near Mew Way and Old Faure Road in Mfuleni protested on Friday and again on Monday, demanding water and toilets. Photo: Vincent Lali
Peak-hour traffic was brought to a standstill on Monday morning as protesters blocked part of the busy N2 highway near Mew Way and Old Faure Road near Mfuleni.
The group, which also protested on Friday, is demanding that the City of Cape Town install taps and give them toilets.
“Residents burn tyres to ensure that the N2 doesn’t function and to draw the government’s attention to our plight,” said community leader Luthando Mcuntula.
He said their previous talks with the mayor and premier during First Thursday meetings were fruitless. “Now we want basic services instead of meetings.”
Another community leader, Nkosinathi Madyo, told GroundUp that people moved onto the land about five years ago and have been without services ever since.
“We want the City to include the provision of our basic services in its 2025/26 budget,” he said. “Women shit in buckets and empty them into the river while men defecate on an open field. That river has an unbearable smell.”
Madyo said that during the winter months, the polluted river overflows into their shacks, causing them to smell.
Asive Mantaka said she and other shack dwellers struggle to get water. “I use a 20-litre container to fetch water to drink and cook from the [nearby] farm, but it doesn’t last the whole day because I have kids,” she said.
She and other residents now get water from a broken pipe to do laundry. “We as women become victims when we relieve ourselves on the field. We want the City to give us toilets so that we can also be dignified and safe,” she said.
Nceba Enge, spokesperson for the Cape Organisation for the Democratic Taxi Association (CODETA), urged protesters to “consider the operations of public transport” because he said their protests have significantly compromised operations.
The City of Cape Town’s media office said “communities are encouraged to approach the City in good faith, in a peaceful and constructive manner”.
“The City will not tolerate intimidation, violence and the destruction of public and private property, damaging roads and infrastructure and the infringement of rights of law-abiding residents.”
“The City offers services where possible in informal settlements on its land – some land is not suitable for human habitation, such as on wetlands that hold high flooding risks, such as is the case in the majority of the settlements established during the Covid-19-era unlawful occupation crisis.”
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