Movement for CARE, other civil society groups and Cape Town residents gathered on Cape Town’s Sea Point Promenade on the Heritage Day to protest the building of the wall on The N2.
Minibus taxis lined Sea Point Beach road as South Africans who live on the periphery of the city had a loud and clear message: "You cannot hide us, you cannot build a wall to hide us and you cannot spend millions of money on that wall while we are living in squalor."
The project known as the N2 Edge Project is a controversial R114 million safety and security initiative to build an 8- to 9-kilometer concrete wall along a high-risk stretch of the N2 highway.
Residents from areas such as Khayelitsha, Mannenberg and Langa raised concerns about service delivery, safety and a lack of resources for impoverished communities, saying the R114m for the wall project could be put to better use.
They said they were frustrated by poor living conditions and perceived disparities in service delivery across the city.
A young man with a t-shirt reading: The City of the Xcluded", had a clear message: "make your viotecount on November 4 (local government elections)."
The Movement for Collective Action and Racial Equity (Care) said the proposed R114 million N2 wall represented a question of who gets to live with dignity, who gets access to opportunity, and whether the city will continue reproducing the spatial divisions created by apartheid.
Addressing the crowd at the protest, one of Movement for Care's founders Axolile Notywala said the majority of Cape Town’s population was Black and Coloured people.
“But when it comes to the money, resources and services it does not look like that. Our streets are full of s#!t. Our roads have big potholes, our young people are busy with drugs because they do not have opportunities.”
“Only the whites and the rich are left to enjoy Sea Point, Camps Bay and these places. Enough is enough. We need to defend our city and we need to reclaim our city,” Notywala said.
Referring to the N2 wall project, Notywala said the money should instead be spent on communities in need.
The City of Cape Town has previously said the project will involve constructing an almost three-metre high wall along the highway near Cape Town International Airport. The wall is intended to reduce smash-and-grab attacks, stone-throwing and robberies.
“We want that money to be invested in us. That is our money, it is not their money,” Notywala said.
Thandi Jolingana from Site C in Khayelitsha described the service delivery problems residents encounter in the area.
“There is raw sewage that is overflowing from the pipes that are never fixed, from the drains that are not being fixed and the toilets. But if you come to places like Sea Point you don't see that, you don't see sewage overflowing,” Jolingana said in comments that were translated into English for the crowd.
Rashid Isaacs from Manenberg also questioned the living conditions in some areas and the safety concerns especially for women. "Look at the where the toilets are placed - it's an 80% risk that somethng is going to happen to you - you are either going to be raped or your place is going to be broken into when you go to the toilet.
"We have put people in power to help us. But who is benefitting - we still live in poverty on the margin and have to suffer. We put people in power to give us a better future... but it's ot happened.
"We are celebrating all these days - apartheid has ended and we celebrate days like Heritage Day and Freedom Day - but what freedom exactly are we celebrating?"
In response to The National's media enquiry, Rob Quintas, the City’s MMC for Urban Mobility said the N2 Edge project remains in the early planning phase, and a number of technical, statutory and governance processes are still underway.
“As these processes progress, the City will engage relevant stakeholders and provide further information at the appropriate stages of the project. At this stage, no further details are available.”