Residents of the Thokoza Women’s Hostel took to the streets in Durban on Monday as their building has been without electricity for more than a week.
The protesting women blocked Dr Yusuf Dadoo (Grey) Street in the Durban CBD with burning tyres.
Metro Police spokesperson Colonel Boysie Zungu confirmed that by the afternoon the road was cleared of debris and the traffic is flowing. “The police attended to the protest quickly and the road is now clear.”
A resident of the hostel, who asked not be named for fear of reprisals, said that the women in the hostel have been living without electricity for eight days.
“We are being abused as women, our food in our fridges has gone bad and we live with children here,” she said.
She also added that the hostel also had a water outage and they believed that the issue may be due to municipal workers’ strike.
She alleged that the municipal workers closed off the water on purpose.
“We were able to get water after we found where they shut the water and we opened it ourselves. It is the municipal workers who are using us to fight their battles with the municipality by shutting our water,” she said.
Councillor Ntando Khuzwayo of ward 28 addressed the protesters at the hostel.
The resident said the councillor was asked to call workers from the municipality to fix the electricity problem.
Questions were sent to the municipality and the story will be updated when they respond.
