Protesting is locals only way out
“When it rains, I always worry whether my child will manage to cross there because he uses this road to school. We can’t afford to lose one of our community members because of the bridge,”
PIENAAR – Residents are threatening to protest in the streets, following Mbombela Local Municipality’s (MLM) failure to fulfilits promise of building a new bridge on one of the busiest roads.
They told Mpumalanga News that they were sick and tired of not being taken seriously. During the rainy season, the constantly had to risk their lives to cross the bridge near Duma Primary School, which was not in a good condition. Residents claimed that it could collapse at any time. One of the road users, Mr Thobani Zulu
said,“The state of the bridge is not good. Water overflows and causes flooding. The unexpected can happen any time. When it rains, we are forced to go via Lihawu
Section and it’s a waste of time.
“How much longer are we going to live like that? Protesting is the only way out of this problem at this stage because we are tired of this situation,” said Zulu.
Another resident said that when it rained, motorists were forced to use one lane along with oncoming traffic because the other side of the road was too dangerous.
“When it rains, I always worry whether my child will manage to cross there because he uses this road to school. We can’t afford to lose one of our community members because of the bridge,” said a concerned
Community member, Ms Hlengiwe Nonyane.
Mpumalanga News has since learnt that a local businessman donated funds to address the issue. Speaking to this publication, Mr Dominic Mdluli said, “We have donated money to the municipality to utilise in building the structure.” The paper tried several times to get hold of the spokesperson of MLM ,Mr Joseph Ngala but no avail.
