Protesters Beg for Development in Their Small Eastern Cape Town

Dozens of residents of Tsomo marched to the offices of the IntsikaYethu Local Municipality on Tuesday, demanding development of the town.

• Dozens of residents of Tsomo in the Eastern Cape marched to the municipal offices on Tuesday.
• They are demanding the municipality work to develop the small town.
• They say too many projects, which could provide much-needed jobs, are started but not completed.

Residents of Tsomo, near Queenstown in the Eastern Cape, marched to the municipal offices to demand development of their town.

Tsomo is one of the smallest towns in the Eastern Cape with few shops.

Protesters said that the economy of the town was slowly dying. They called for the gravel road to Stutterheim to be tarred, for drains to be fixed and for projects such as the taxi rank to be completed.

Business leader Sima Qwele said there were too many unfinished projects and people were tired of waiting for jobs.

“People are frustrated. It’s rare to find a project finished in time. Most people are relying on these small municipal projects for work. Tsomo is very small with only few shops. It lacks banks. People have to go to Cofimvaba, Queenstown or Butterworth for most services,” said Qwele.

He said residents had decided to march to the municipal offices because they had heard that a developer wanted land to build shops and they wanted the municipality to provide the land. “Our understanding is that this developer will bring about 350 jobs to young people of Tsomo,” said Qwele.

Shops were closed during the march.

Resident Siphosethu Mancotywa said, “ As you can see 90% of the people here are young. We are unemployed. We need jobs.” She said many projects were started but not completed, pointing to the R23-million, multi-purpose centre which was started in 2015 and is still unfinished.

“The first contractor left, then another contractor came last year. They destroyed everything that was built by the first contractor and started from scratch. For the past eight years we have been waiting for this centre to be finished so we can apply for jobs, even if it’s a cleaning job. That will mean something to those who are lucky. And the centre will be helpful to our communities. There are young people with talent here. All we are asking of our municipality is that they must invite investors and not chase away those who are here to develop the town. They must find ways to keep them,” she said.

Community leader Hardy Mzimkhulu said the Tsomo economy could grow if the municipality tarred the road from Tsomo to Stutterheim. “That will be a shortcut to East London. The taxi industry will benefit and more cars will come to Tsomo,” he said.

IntsikaYethu Local Municipality spokesperson Zuko Tshangana said land marked for development had been sold to the developer, who had submitted building plans. But the plans had not been approved because the developer was planning to encroach on land reserved for municipal parking. The developer had been advised to revise his building plan, Tshangana said.

Residents handed their memorandum to Mayor Khanyisa Mdleleni who promised to look into their grievances.

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