Tekwane South on fire

Traffic came to a standstill and commuters were left stranded without transportation as community members took their fight for services to the streets on Wednesday morning.

They want the City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM) to fix the manhole at the bridge between Tekwane South and Entokozweni.

The manhole was caused by the heavy rainfall on Sunday morning and has not been attended to since. The community has vowed to make the town ungovernable.

“We have been trying to get the municipality to come and fix this manhole because it poses a huge risk to our people, especially motorists.

Since Sunday, following the heavy rainfall, nothing has been done to repair or attend to this bridge. We feel that the City of Mbombela doesn’t take us seriously because we called them to come and fix the manhole, but they showed us the middle finger.

And for that we will show them that will can make this town ungovernable,” vowed one of the community members leaders leading the protest. They are also complaining about the lack of water, blocked drains, potholes and streetlights.

“Besides the manhole issue, we have tried on several occasion to get the municipality to fix blocked drains and repair the potholes and streetlights but, up to date, we haven’t heard anything from them. When it rains our houses become flooded – these are some of the homes that were damaged by the 2017 storm, and have never been fixed.

We are tired of being treated as second-hand citizens or stepchildren of the municipality,” continued the community member.

Residents have vowed to continue their mass protest plan until their grievances have been attended to.

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Asked for comment, CMLM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said they are aware of the road, but their hands are tied because it falls within the jurisdiction of the Mpumalanga Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.

“We have raised this matter with the provincial department of public works, they have to act and fix that road,” said Ngala.

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The department was not available for comment at the time going to press.