DAANTJIE – Local unemployed young people vented their anger by taking their matter to the streets where they barricaded the main road with stones and burning tyres on Monday morning.

They accused the local ward councillor of nepotism and being biased when hiring people to do contract work in the area.
Motorists and commuters were left stranded and unable to use the road for more than five hours.

Residents said the strike action was the only language through which their complaints would be heard by the representatives. They accused the ward councillor of only hiring ANC-card-carrying members and of taking bribes.

According to the disgruntled locals, there were road-construction projects currently taking place in the area, but no one from the community had been hired.

Some even alleged that they were only promised jobs if they could forward their IDs with R50 inside.They also accused the councillor for introducing a new community liaison officer (CLO) to the public without even electing him to the position.

They threatened to cut off electricity cables if their complaints were not attended to.According to the community, the ward councillor failed to answer some questions posed by the locals.

“We demand a serious meeting with the councillor so that she can provide us with answers, we need to be treated with dignity and above that, we need to choose our own CLO. We call for jobs from projects taking place in the community,” said one of the residents, Gcebo Khumbulani.

Pienaar police officers responded swiftly to calm down the situation. Spokesperson for the police, Lt Jabu Ndubane said, “It seems like the strike will take a while, however, our unit has been summoned to come and deal with the situation.”