Three protesters, who were arrested during a service delivery protest, appeared in Lydenburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

This follows after residents from Spekboom blocked the R36 Lydenburg/Ohrigstad road on Friday with rocks, tyres, trucks and tree stumps.

The police were called after motorists raised their concerns about the delays and their safety on the road.

Capt Alfred Moela, Lydenburg SAPS spokesperson, confirmed the arrest and court appearance. “Anna Mokadi, Thabo Sekgobela and Chiko Mohlala appeared in court and they were all granted R500 bail. Mokadi was arrested for public violence and she was released.

“There was not enough evidence linking her to what she was arrested for. Sekgobela and Mohlala were arrested for robbery, because they took the keys to the truck. These two will appear in court on January 27.

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Sekgobela was released, but Mohlala is still in custody, because he failed to pay the bail money,” he said.

Johannes Mokadi, a resident who attended the court appearance, said, “As the community of Spekboom, we will go to court again on January 27 to support the two residents, but after that we will go to the municipality.

We want them to respond to our grievances in two days after we go there. If not, we will close the road again,” he said.

Mokadi added that they were aware that the land on which Spekboom is situated belongs to the Lutheran Church.

The church has to be approached even if the residents want the municipality to develop the area. According to him, he has been staying in that area since he was six, and now he is 36, but service delivery still does
not exist.

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“The municipality had a meeting with the church; they were given permission to provide us with water and electricity. The challenge is that the municipality says they do not have money. The community are concerned, because they know where to find us during election times.

However, now when we need them to provide services, they refuse,” said Mokadi. By the time of going to press, TCLM has not responded to questions sent to them by the newspaper.