LIMPOPO – Kutama residents barricaded the D3715 leading from Kutama to Sinthumule early last Wednesday and Thursday in protest against what they call the slow pace involved in the rehabilitation of the second phase of the road.
The roads in the area were closed off with rocks and all sorts of rubble, and some of these obstacles were set alight to prevent motorists from passing. Hundreds of commuters were left stranded, leaving workers unable to get to work, while children were forced to walk many kilometres to and from school.
A resident of Kutama, Samuel Mudau told the media that they had been interacting with the Road Agency Limpopo (RAL) and the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure for a long time, but that nothing fruitful had come of it.
“We closed the road to raise our grievances with the municipality and government, so that they can begin to attend to our issues. We are tired of these dangerous potholes.”
Mudau said the community had had enough of “the empty promises from RAL and Public Works”.
“We demand answers from the MEC in black and white. We are not going to fold our arms while things are not moving. Service delivery remains the core business of local government, coupled with addressing the concerns of communities in order to avoid protests like these,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Sinthumule/ Kutama Concern Group, Elijah Liremi has called on residents of Muduluni and Tshikwarani to desist from joining protests and “being used by people who want to become members of legislature who are using the situation supposedly on behalf of ‘our road-using community’” .
The chairperson of Zoutpansberg Community Development Forum (ZCDF), Patrick Sikhutshi remarked that his organisation met with the department and the agency on October 25.
“As we had agreed with them in June, this meeting was meant to introduce a contractor to start working. To our surprise, they brought in a consulting engineer who only talked about the preliminary status of the scope of work. This was rejected by the forum and the greater community, as it was not in line with what was discussed in the previous meeting’s resolutions.
“We immediately issued a statement saying this matter should never disrupt schooling. We are happy that the call was respected. We as the forum shall organise a fully-fledged protest after the examination if nothing positive has been done by that time,” he concluded.
