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People dig the road to protest the provision of services.
- Residents, complaining about the lack of water and electricity services, decided to block R33 with stones and excavated the road.
- Most of the Umzinyathi communities were in deep rural areas and therefore found it difficult to deliver services as quickly as residents expected, M saidayor Petros Mthandeni Ngubane.
- He said they notified the South African Police Services (SAPS) about the “criminal activities”.
Umzinyathi Mayor Petros Mthandeni Ngubane on Tuesday condemned the road damage during a protest over the provision of services at eBhovini, between Pomeroy and Dundee.
Residents who had been complaining about the lack of water and electricity in the community blocked R33 with stones and dug the road.
“It is not the fault of the mayor that there is no electricity in the area,” Ngubane said in response to the protest.
“It’s Eskom’s fault.”
READ | Western Cape needs more officers to deal with ‘alarming’ number of protests, says MEC
Ngubane told News24 that the protesters had requested to see him and other leaders, including Msinga Mayor Busiswa Ngqobo, and that they went to assess the situation.
He said that most of the communities in the Umzinyathi area were in the deep rural areas and therefore it was difficult for the municipality to provide services as quickly as the residents expected them to and since the roads had been damaged, it would be even more difficult.
“I am glad that Eskom has improved the power plant,” he said.
“We hope that by next week or the following week that more areas will have access to electricity.”
Ngubane said that even though the municipality had problems, they are aware that there were people who politicized this issue due to the upcoming elections.
“We know them because there have been images that have been circulating,” Ngubane said.
In some images that appeared on social media, residents were seen digging the road.
Speaking on the water issue, Ngubane said they were planning to finalize the issue before the end of the financial year.
He said they notified the South African Police Services (SAPS) about the “criminal activities”.
“We are going to press charges because people are allowed to protest, but now they are breaking [on] the right of other people[s]”Ngubane added.
The KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Bheki Ntuli tasked the police with arresting the suspects behind the “criminal activities”.
According to a statement from the MEC, the police arrested three suspects for public violence.
They will appear in Dundee magistrates court on Friday.
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