Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – Cape Town’s former Walking Bus members demonstrated on the sidelines of the City Hall ahead of the State of the Nation Address (Sona), after it threatened mass action at Sona if Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis did not respond to a list of demands by Tuesday.
Last week Friday Walking Bus members handed over a list of demands to Hill-Lewis after the programme officially ended on December 15, and members were asked to apply to the City’s newest law enforcement unit in January.
It sparked outrage a few days later by members who accused Hill-Lewis of replacing an initiative which began in the community with a law enforcement unit that discriminates against the former Walking Bus members.
The Walking Bus Project entailed parents, as well as volunteers from the broader community walking groups of children to school in the morning and back home in the afternoon, with the aim of improving learner safety.
Hundreds of Walking Bus members marched to the mayor’s office at the end of January in protest of ending the Walking Bus and replacing it with a law enforcement unit “focused on the protection of service delivery teams, facilities and infrastructure”.
After a meeting with the Hill-Lewis on February 4, the group handed over a list of demands and required a response by Tuesday. If no response was received, the group threatened mass action at Sona.
As the stage is set for this year’s Sona which is being held at the City Hall, former Walking Bus members are currently demonstrating and holding placards outside the barricades of the new Sona venue.
“This project was launched by the previous mayor Dan Plato, and when Geordin Hill-Lewis took over, he removed us,” one of the demonstrators told eNCA during their live broadcast at the City Hall on Thursday.
“He (Hill-Lewis) doesn’t want this project to continue. Please renew our contracts,” he said.
The list of demands handed over to Hill-Lewis includes;
“This new unit aims to professionalise the former walking bus programme, giving qualified applicants better security training and equipment, and a broader scope of duties in the community,” the City of Cape Town said in a statement in January regarding the new law enforcement unit in place of the Walking Bus.
“It is our hope that the numerous volunteers in our city will gain an opportunity to professionalise the work that they do for their communities by applying to the vacancies once they open up in the next few months,” it said.
However, there will be fewer positions in the new unit.
The project was started by concerned mothers in crime-ridden areas in Cape Town and grabbed international attention. Dan Plato took over the project before becoming mayor in 2016, however continued to incentivise the project to members after his appointment.
The Walking Bus project grew to cover more than 70 areas.
IOL
For More News And Analysis About South-Africa Follow Africa-Press
