ENRAGED France informal settlement residents barricaded Lansdowne Road, which runs from Cape Town's southern suburbs through to Khayelitsha and Gugulethu, with a rubbish container and discarded buckets of toilet waste in protest against the lack of decent housing.

The incident prompted city employees to close the road and remove the mess. When Sowetan arrived in the morning the mess had already been cleaned up.

"We want houses, nothing else. We've been staying here since 1998 and there's no development. When we call our councillor to the general meetings he doesn't come. What we must do," asked a resident, who gave his name as Dlamini.

He described the protest as minor: "It's just the beginning. Maybe in the next protest we will discard (bucket toilet waste) into the councillor's house," he said.

Dlamini said local ANC councillor Monde Nqulwana was "disrespectful": "He doesn't care about us."

When Sowetan asked Dlamini about the health risk, he said any struggle has its consequences.

Other residents called for the arrest of protesters, saying their actions were a deadly threat to health.