Hundreds flood the street in protest against municipal neglect

MGOBODZI – Issues drive communities to march in the streets in hopes to make the municipality aware of the neglect they are facing.

Hundreds of people recently flooded the streets and marched to the tribal offices in protest to reinstate the true tribal chief.

Current chieftain of the Mawewe inner royal traditional community Ms Evah Simangele Mkhatshwa has been requested to step down and let the true chief, Mr Candy Zwide Makhatshwa take his place as the leader of his community.

The march was peaceful but emotions ran high when people blockaded the road and refused to let a bus with passengers pass through. One protester actually demanded that the driver open the door but he refused to do so, elders in the community quickly stepped in and resolved the matter by letting the bus pass safely.

Their concerns were clear, they said to the people, “we want action, but we will ask for it in a non-violent manner”. Unlike a demonstration earlier this week in Mzinti where roads were closed with rubble and a pregnant woman was hospitalised after police fired rubber bullets into the crowd of protesters.

According to Mr Bosman Grobler, spokesman for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, media reports stated that the police force in question did not attempt to help the woman and the residents themselves had to attend to her and transport her to Tonga Hospital.

“Residents became increasingly impatient with the municipality’s failure to provide them with water and electricity, resulting in them taking their grievances to the streets.

This protest was a direct result of the inability of the ANC to provide clean potable water to residents.

“Incidents of police brutality have been on the increase in Mpumalanga and therefore the DA will call on SAPS commissioner, Lt Gen Thulani Ntombela to investigate the matter as well as write to the Independent Complaints Directorate to look into the matter,” said Grobler.

According to police spokesman Lt Mzwandine Nyambi, the protesters became violent which forced crowd management police to fire rubber bullets. “The crowd started throwing stones at vehicles and police officers, that’s when they were forced to react to control the situation.” said Nyambi.