Protest action in parts of Soweto died down after the morning disruptions. While the protesters were nowhere to be seen, the roads were filled with rocks and burning tyres. The disgruntled residents of Soweto want the City of Johannesburg to attend to their service delivery issues.
The Rea Vaya bus service suspended its operations on 20 June 2022, as some of the majority bus routes were blocked off with debris by angry Soweto residents. The Johannesburg metro police were deployed to Soweto during Monday’s protest.
One of the organisers of the protest is Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini, the leader of Operation Dudula, who said they would march to the office of the mayor on Tuesday to make sure their voices are heard. Dlamini said that local leadership in Soweto had a meeting on Monday to come up with a plan on how to push forward with making their grievances heard.
“What we’ve done as local leadership is said ‘guys, let’s define the problem and let’s go to whoever is causing the problem’ and what we’re doing tomorrow on the 21st is marching as a community in Soweto to the mayor’s office to say, ‘you are Gauteng’s number one citizen, here are the problems what can we all do for a general solution?’ So, there’s a big march tomorrow,” Dlamini said.
He said they will ensure that the march is peaceful and that no laws are broken. “There’ll be leadership on the ground to ensure it’s well within the boundaries of the law and we’ll focus on the march tomorrow because the march is what we need for sustainable results,” Dlamini said.