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St Helena Bay service delivery protests continue

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Service delivery protests in St Helena Bay on the West Coast continued on Tuesday. The protests started last week to highlight the community’s call for better service delivery and housing and have spilled over into other fishing communities in the St Helena Bay area.

What started as relatively peaceful service delivery and housing protests last week in Laingville, St Helena Bay, turned violent after 11-year-old Leo Williams was shot in the head while watching television during the protests.

The community blames the police for the shooting and the young boy is fighting for his life in the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.

The situation in Laingville calmed down this morning, but protests spilled over to other fishing communities in the area on Monday, and continued this morning. One of the protesters who lives in the area is Pieter van der Horst.

“We are here to show the government that we are very serious and we want houses. We are living here for a long generation and according to government this land over here and over there belongs to the factory and we want answers. Is it the government’s land or Lucky Star’s land? We want answers and we want to build our houses.”

Community members say they will continue to demonstrate until their demands are met.

A resident, Charleen Achilles, says they are frustrated because private companies allegedly own large pieces of land in the area which can be used for housing.

“Most of the land belongs to Oceana or Lucky Star. And what we are saying is that those people need to explain where they got the land from and why they cannot give back to the community. We are not going to stop until we get answers. We don’t want people to get hurt, but the people are fed up.”

Some residents say road closures due to the protest action have affected many people.

Farmers have now opened their land for people to access alternative routes.

A resident, Pieter Swanepoel, says they are struggling to move in an out of the area.

A desperate plea has been made to the local Saldana Bay Municipality leadership to intervene and find a solution.

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