One arrested in Roodepoort housing protest
Johannesburg metro police has confirmed the arrest of one person on charges of public violence following a protest in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg.
Residents took to the streets on Thursday morning to protest against planned evictions by Johannesburg Social Housing Company (JOSHCO).
Dozens of demonstrators blockaded roads in CBD with rocks and burning tyres.
Metro police spokesperson Xolani Fihla said the protestors would be marching to the mayor's office to hand over a memorandum of demands.
Roads in the Roodepoort CBD have since been reopened.
Meanwhile City Power has temporarily suspended its services in Roodepoort following the protest.
"City Power teams are not able to respond to the outages in and around Roodepoort due to the volatility of the situation in the area this morning. We have been informed by the JMPD and other law enforcements agencies of several road closures following a protest action by the residents since the morning, in which even rubber bullets were shot and cars and property reportedly damaged.
"We have adviced our teams to stay clear of the CBD and nearby suburbs to ensure their safety and that of City Power trucks. 40% of the depot Service area is affected. This unfortunately means repair work will be affected as we won't be able to attend to outage calls or do any work in the area until it is safe to do so. " says Spokesperson Isaac Mangena
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