Temporary service disruptions in Bloekombos and Wallacedene due to protests
25 March 2021
The City of Cape Town would like to alert residents of Bloekombos and Wallacedene that Water and Sanitation operations in the area have been temporarily suspended since Wednesday, 24 March 2021 due to violent protests that included a City vehicle being set alight. Read more below:
Nobody was injured in the incident, however, City staff have been withdrawn from these areas for safety reasons. This is having an impact on various service requests in these areas such as blocked sewers or leaking or burst pipes.
The City’s clinics in Wallacedene and Bloekombos have also remained closed to the public since the protests erupted. Staff have been rerouted to other nearby facilities in the interim.
City departments are monitoring the situation in consultation with law enforcement, and will begin addressing the backlog as soon as it is safe to do so.
Protest action may also affect refuse collection in some areas, particularly in the broader Delft area. Residents should please continue to take their bins out every day until these are serviced. Bins can be left out until 21:00 every day, however, the teams will not be able to service bins after sunset in areas that are volatile.
‘Violent or threatening tactics such as this, only work against communities. It results in already-stretched City services having to withdraw from an area completely, with the community themselves suffering as a result. Furthermore, any damaged infrastructure that must be repaired or replaced, drains limited resources that could otherwise be used more constructively.
‘We remain committed to maximising our available resources for the benefit of all Cape Town communities and fulfilling our mandate to deliver services, but the safety of our staff has to remain our first priority. Service operations will resume once it is safe to do so,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Waste Alderman Xanthea Limberg.
See the media release: http://bit.do/fP2fS
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
