Angry residents protest for infrastructure
Msholozi residents want a primary and secondary school and a clinic to be built in the area. Some residents of the settlement embarked on protest actions on Monday and Tuesday.
WHITE RIVER – Monday’s protest did not interrupt traffic on the R40 between White River and Mbombela. On Tuesday morning the road was closed for almost an hour during peak morning time. Protesters set tyres alight at the four-way stop and, at one stage, a bus was parked across the road, prohibiting any thoroughfare.
Traffic was rerouted via the Brondal Road or the Plaston-KMIA Road.Police fired teargas at the protesters.
The premises of Mama Esther’s Safe Haven was also set alight.
SAPS spokesman Col Mtsholi Bhembe said four people suffered minor injuries in the fire at the safe haven and were transported to Rob Ferreira Hospital.
Five suspects were to appear in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on arson and public violence charges on Wednesday. At the time of going to press the outcome was not yet known.
Also read: SAPS to remove children from Mama Esther’s
The area, which is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works, lacks basic service infrastructure such as roads, water, sewerage and electricity, as well as title deeds.
The City of Mbombela Local Municipality has been in the process of having Msholozi transferred to it for years. It is not clear why this has not been achieved.
One of the people who resides at Mama Esther’s Safe Haven said that she has nowhere to go now that the only home she had has been destroyed. “I have been living here for 23 years and I don’t know what will happen to me now,” she said.
Thami Mchunu, marketing and communications manager for the Department of Public Works, said that Mama Esther Nkosi had been using the premises without its permission.
“The department hereby affirms that Nkosi was never granted any right to utilise the structures in Msholozi. She has not paid rent to this department since she is illegally operating in the structures.”
In January the High Court ordered that all the children be removed from the centre.
Spokesman for the Mpumalanga Department of Social Development, Petunia Lessing, confirmed that all the children were removed from the centre on March 1. “(They) were placed at other registered centres,” she said.
Also read: Plight of orphaned Msholozi community
