More than 100 residents from Mfuleni marched to the Western Cape Premier’s office and the Cape Town Civic Centre on Friday, 14 August 2026, to demand immediate access to water, electricity, and sanitation. The protest, which brought service delivery grievances to the heart of the city, was fuelled by years of neglect and the persistent danger posed by living in informal settlements without infrastructure.
The community’s desperation follows a tragic fire in November 2025 that claimed the lives of Noyiba Thini and her son, an incident residents say could have been avoided with proper access. Protest organiser Bathandwa Gali expressed the deep frustration felt by families in the area who remain vulnerable to recurring disasters.
We have no water. We can’t even douse a burning shack.
Gali further linked the lack of infrastructure to the rising safety concerns within the community. He argued that the absence of formal roads prevents police from patrolling the area, thereby allowing crime to thrive unchecked.
The crime rate is high in our areas because the police can’t patrol. Once we get roads, the police will patrol and the crime rate will decrease.
Albert Dlwengu, Director for Policy and Strategy at the Western Cape Department of Local Government, met with the demonstrators and promised to deliver their memorandum directly to the Premier. Meanwhile, Andre Louw of the City’s public participation department committed to channelling the grievances to the relevant municipal departments and providing feedback to the community leaders.
Despite the official reception, residents have warned that their patience is exhausted. Gali issued a clear ultimatum to provincial and city officials during the march.
If we don’t get what we want, we won’t return here, we will shut down the N2.
The challenges facing Mfuleni mirror a broader pattern of service delivery protests across the Western Cape, often intensifying as municipal pressure grows. Informal settlements frequently struggle with electrification and emergency access, complicated by the legal and technical constraints of providing formal services to unproclaimed land.
It remains unclear when the City or the provincial government will provide a formal response to the specific demands outlined in the memorandum. This reporter will follow up with the Western Cape Department of Local Government on Monday to determine if a timeline for infrastructure assessment has been set.