Many City of Mbombela (CoM) employees were locked out of the buildings due to a protest early today, Monday, February 3.

“Gates are locked with chains at the Civic Centre. No one can enter. Officials are waiting in the street,” read a WhatsApp message from a source.

The protesters are from Mataffin. They attached placards onto the locked gate with demands such as “We demand our project back, Kaapsehoop Matsafeni bus road”.

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The placards also called on the municipal manager, Wiseman Khumalo, general manager, Bertha Seloane, and White Hazy to stop corruption. White Hazy is a company that has done many counts of construction work for the CoM.

The security personnel cut through the chains and let the workers in to gain entrance.

Eventually, the leaders of the protest action were invited into a hall in the CoM’s first floor where a meeting was held. This publication arrived at the hall only to be told that the meeting was private and not open to the media.

None of the protest leaders agreed to speak about the incident.

At the time of this publication, the CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, had not responded to any questions sent to him regarding this incident. White Hazy’s phone rang unanswered.