The stones on the road and burning tyres as you drive into the townships of Bronkhorstspruit are only the beginning, residents say.
At 4pm, they will meet at the Enkangala community hall and start another march to Bronkhorstspruit.
The chairperson of the Concerned Residents of Enkangala, Petros Malobola, says it will be peaceful. Other residents were chanting: “we will burn it”.
Protesters have set fire to a house, a satellite police station and a municipal office. Last night, they also set the Rethabiseng Clinic alight.
Smoke could still be seen rising from the clinic today.
“We are setting the places alight because people are frustrated but they realise that the things that they’ve done are wrong,” Malobola said.
On the reasons for the protests, he said: “We are staying in Mpumalanga, yet we are being billed by Tshwane. We want the premier or someone to come down and sort this out. They know it’s not about the billing issue but about the merger with Tshwane. We never wanted to be merged with Tshwane, there was no public participation about this.
“Give us back Metsweding, it was able to sustain itself and take care of us. Our municipality used to give us viable and sustainable service delivery.”
The residents met yesterday to organise the march for this morning but according to Malobola “the peaceful march was sabotaged by the mayor’s [Kgosientso Ramokgopa’s] people. He sent his puppets to come and ask us what our problems, are yet they know what’s wrong. It’s their corruption and poor service delivery we have a problem with,” he said.
There was a significant police presence in the surrounding townships.
