Protesters from Nomakanjani informal settlement blocked the R335 early on Wednesday. demanding to be moved to better land.
About 300 protesters from Nomakanjani informal settlement in Motherwell in Gqeberha blocked the busy R335 Addo Road early on Wednesday.
They say their shacks are waterlogged when it rains and they want to be allocated land elsewhere.
Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said a truck had been burned. He said the road had been opened by 8:15am.
As the protest continued, the protesters blew whistles and sang songs such as “Noma besidubula, siyaya” (Even if they shoot us, we will not retreat) and “Amabhulw’ amnyama, andenziwari” (Black boers make us worried).
Protesters then marched to Ikamvelihle Police Station demanding that Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Babalwa Lobishe address them. Instead, Ward 53 councillor Zwelandile Tsotso (ANC) addressed them, saying the mayor was held up in a meeting.
He said the mayor had promised to come.
A protester in the crowd shouted that they had voted for the mayor but she was too busy to address them: “But if they mayor is busy it’s fine, we will see you in 2026.”
Another shouted: “Even if we are birds, we are not scared to be shot at. This will be another Marikana massacre. We are used to being shot at.”
When they dispersed, protesters said they would return.
Some said the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had promised to move families to vacant sites in neighbouring ward 54 on 18 August.
Resident Thembisa Lamani said officials from the municipality’s human settlements directorate had failed to keep their promise. “When it rains, our shacks leak and roads flood. We are overwhelmed with the stinking smell of dirty water, while frogs and mosquitoes are all over the area. Due to the unbearable situation, several families decided to leave the area for good. This is very sad,” she said.
Asked by GroundUp about the promise to move the families, municipal spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya did not respond.
In a statement earlier in the day, he said: “Residents are advised to avoid Addo Road as it is currently blocked due to protest action. The protest relates to human settlements grievances, and a municipal delegation will be engaging with the community to address the concerns.”
The settlement is waterlogged when it rains.
© 2025 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.
The #StopTheDiscrimination campaign addresses discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Pecan Oblivion
What do you call the oke at a South African gathering who cooks the food?
Braai\’n
Metal Lady
The child who claims to know as many proverbs as his father should be allowed to pay taxes