BUSINESSES are feeling the pinch, with residents of Malamulele continuing to fight for their own municipality instead of falling under the Thulamela Municipality, which is currently the case.
By Friday, Malamulele seemed like a ghost town as residents staged a total shutdown of any business activity, from hawkers to shop owners. Most of these businesses are still recovering from last year’s protest when residents stoned them and looted their shops during a protest for the same reason.
Shop owners who spoke to CV under condition of anonymity in the interest of their safety, said the problem with the protesters was that they did not realise the shop owners had to pay rent and had families to feed.
“They are using us as a punching bag to get what they want from government,” said one of the shop owners, who lost all his stock in a fire set by protesting residents last year.
“I lost a lot in that protest which cannot be recovered overnight…it’s no longer safe if you have a business in town because you never know when they will come and loot,” he continued.
Following the total shutdown, the Malamulele task team held a closed door meeting on Sunday, to which the media was barred, with no media briefing taking place afterwards.
According to a source close to the matter, the task team received a letter from president Jacob Zuma’s office, indicating that their grievance was being attended to. In light of this, the shutdown was suspended indefinitely.
