Residents bring Cathcart to standstill in service delivery protest

Cathcart came to a standstill on Monday after residents took to the streets, burning tyres, spilling refuse bins and burning a truck down.

Residents showed their frustrations at what they said was lack of services in the area by blocking the streets and breaking a window at the municipal offices.

Schools, shops, post office, municipal buildings and all other businesses in the small town, including garages, had to be closed.

Isaac Mthembu, an employee of Aqua transport whose truck was burnt at 8.30am, said the truck had broken down on Sunday.

Ceshemba Vakalisa, a community leader, said the protest was the continuation of last year’s protest after residents raised their demands to Amahlathi local municipality and Amathole district municipality about the lack of services.

“Water in Cathcart needs to be upgraded as there are areas that have been without water for close to a year. There is an RDP houses project which is on standstill, the reason for that is that there is no water and sanitation infrastructure to continue with phase two of the project,” he said.

Both municipalities failed to respond to the questions sent by to them by DispatchLIVE on Monday morning.