Villagers Block Roads in Northern KwaZulu-Natal

Protesters blocked the road with rocks and burning tyres.

Protesters from Silonjane Village in Nquthu, in KwaZulu-Natal, blocked roads on Monday and Tuesday, demanding that a road rehabilitation project be extended to their village.

The villagers blocked the D2249, the gravel road which leads to the Blood River Heritage site at Ncome and reconnects to the main road at Thelezini.

Villagers used stones and burning tyres to block the traffic, including transport taking learners to four schools in the area, but later opened the road.

They told GroundUp they wanted to stop the rehabilitation work on the road to Ndatshana Village, because the work on the road does not reach Silonjane. They are also unhappy that three out of the six workers from the area employed on the project are from one household. They want the recruitment process for this project to be started again in the presence of families from both villages.

On Monday afternoon protesters went to the house of the local councillor Thamisanqa Abion Dlamini (IFP) in Silonjane and then to the house of the induna in Ndatshana, Libeya Motloung.

One protester, Zandile Motloung, said the village had been sidelined “because we are Sothos”. “We were sidelined for water service delivery, toilets and the recently built Ndatshana Community Hall jobs.”

The rehabilitation of the road ends exactly where water taps and toilets installation ended several years ago. About 60 households in Silonjane village have never had piped water and use a well shared with cows and a few communal boreholes.

GroundUp visited Dlamini but family members refused to allow this reporter into his house, claiming we were working for the ANC.

Motloung blamed the councillor for the problem. He said some Ndatshana villagers had demanded a better way to cross the Mbudle River and he and the councillor had agreed to do that, and to leave the other portion of the road undone, because the rehabilitation budget from the provincial transport department covered only five kilometres.

Ndabezinhle Sibiya, spokesperson for the provincial Department of Transport said the department would follow up to find out if the contractor was keeping the community informed. Sibiya said the department had to maintain about 30,000 gravel roads in the province. He did not explain why the road maintenance project stopped before Silonjane.

The protest continued on Tuesday.

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