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Johannesburg – An anti-Mashaba march turned violent when police fired rubber bullets at protesters who stormed the Johannesburg City Council building in Braamfontein on Thursday.
The Johannesburg Social Movement led a march to the offices to call for mayor Herman Mashaba to resign over the his decision to amend or scrap some of the projects his predecessor Parks Tau started in 2014.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched from the Gauteng legislature to deliver a memorandum to Mashaba.
Four people were arrested and taken to the Hillbrow police station, the movement’s spokesperson Tshepang Mokgatla said. They would likely appear in court on Monday, someone in the crowd said.
Protestors claimed police provoked them.
Mashaba intended scrapping the Jozi@Work, Jozi Bread, Jozi Mushroom Farmers and Jozi Mini Cities projects. They were intended to create jobs.
The movement’s Stan Itshegetseng said they were told Mashaba was not willing to come and listen to them.
Demonstrators claimed that up to 8000 jobs would be lost from the scrapping of the Jozi@Work initiative alone. Three days ago, Mashaba told The Star newspaper they were “vanity projects”.
Mashaba said the programme further entrenched patronage in the city. People had told him that opportunities under the programme were only given to ANC members.
Itshegetseng told News24 they would meet on Friday to discuss returning to the city council with an even bigger support base.
