Residents protest over impassable gravel road

Angry villagers from around Majola in Port St Johns shutdown the R61 demanding a tar road on a 70 km gravel road that connects their homes to the national route. Picture: SIKHO NTSHOBANE
Angry villagers from around Majola in Port St Johns shutdown the R61 demanding a tar road on a 70 km gravel road that connects their homes to the national route. Picture: SIKHO NTSHOBANE
Angry residents from several villages around the Majola Tea Estate in Port St Johns (PSJ) shutdown the busy R61 leaving motorists stranded for several hours.

At the root of the protest is a 70km  stretch of gravel road linking their homes to the national route which they claim has become impassable.

"Just this past weekend, four cars overturned because of the bad condition of this road," one of the protest leaders, Luzuko Telo told the Daily Dispatch.

PSJ mayor Nomvuzo Mlombile-Cingo who rushed to the scene to try and reason with the marchers told them that the route they were complaining about belonged to the provincial government.

However the protesters, among them taxi drivers, agreed to call off the protest after Mlombile-Cingo promised to bring a contractor to meet the community at 12 noon tomorrow.

She said the road had been included in  a list of provincial roads to be refurbished but said she would not be able to give them a definite time-frame for that.

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