Residents destroy portion of R33 in service delivery protest

Residents destroy portion of R33 in service delivery protest

Umzinyathi's Mayor says residents who damage public infrastructure during protest action will be taken to court. 

Pomeroy protest
Supplied

Demonstrators barricaded the R33 and hacked a portion of the route between Pomeroy and Dundee yesterday - over the supply of water and electricity:



"They need to be charged. Someone needs to go and lay a case against them


These people who did that damage on the road must be arrested because those people are thugs. They are not honourable citizens. If we are just listening to them and working with them, they were not supposed to do what they are doing."


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Mayor Alderman Ngubane says they've previously met with community members who submitted a list of their demands to officials. Ngubane says, during that discussion, they agreed to meet again next week, to update residents on the progress they've made so far.



"We had a problem because Eskom could not upgrade the power at our water treatment plant which is at Tugela River. We are now busy with the testing. 



"We paid Eskom R5.2 million in June 2018 but Eskom had a problem with upgrading this infrastructure because of the resources that they didn't have," said Ngubane. 


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