On the Monday morning of May 26 after several hours of negotiation the Witbank SAPS was forced to disperse the crowd.
According to the Witbank SAPS they identified the instigator of the illegal protests and arrested him on several charges. One of the demands was for the installation of street lights or umbrella lights in old Coronation.
However the community is built on very unstable ground with many sink holes around the area as long abandoned mine tunnels run underneath the area.
The eMalahleni municipality administrator Theo van Vuuren told the WITBANK NEWS that if the municipality installs permanent structures and lights then the issues is not with the damage to the structures but that it could lead to loss. One human life cannot be fixed or replaced.
Last year the MEC for Mpumalanga managed to relocate over two hundred households from Old Coronation to better areas as part of a provincial housing project initiated by the MEC, however according to the municipality other people just take their place in Old Coronation. As one family leaves another moves in.
Footage of the protest
* Can’t see the video? Click here
