Motorists are advised to avoid the R40 from Marite to Acornhoek, due to an ongoing service delivery protest currently taking place in the area. Community members have barricaded the R40 and other linking roads with burning tyres, branches, rocks and tracks.

It has been two weeks since some Bushbuckridge Local Municipality (BLM) villagers began protesting and demanding roads and clean, running water in their homes. They want the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to come and address their concerns because local and provincial governments have failed to do so.

The communities are accusing the BLM mayor, Sylvia Nxumalo, and ward councillors of failing to address the water and road issues. Residents further demanded that the MEC for public works, roads, and transport, Mandla Ndlovu, come and address their grievances. They have threatened to continue blocking the R40 until their concerns are heard.

ALSO READ:Protests continue in Bushbuckridge over lack of service delivery

Motorists are advised to avoid using the R40 during the protest and thereby avoid being damaged and looted by the protesters.
Community members say the MEC has failed to attend to their grievances, and now other villages have joined in, causing more chaos in Bushbuckridge.
The traffic between villages in the area has come to a standstill, and schools have also been affected.

ALSO READ:Protesters up in arms over lack of service delivery in Bushbuckridge

Police are on the ground to monitor the situation, but the protesters are taking advantage of the length of the R40, making it difficult to quell the protest. A limited number of police have been deployed to calm the situation.

The BLM spokesperson Fhumulani Thovhakale, said the MEC for public works had a meeting with the community of wards 16, 17 and 32, and informed them that the department will only build one road out of three they were protesting for due to the limited budget. “We are surprised now that they have gone back to block the road again,” she said.
Thovhakale also said the executive mayor had a meeting with the communities from Newforest and Thulamahashe who were protesting about water and paving of the streets on Tuesday, January 24.
“The community of Newforest is against the provision of water from boreholes as an interim measure while the municipality is still waiting for the approval of a technical report by the Department of Water and Sanitation to do a reticulation in their area,” she said.