Traffic was backed up for hours on the busy R61 between Libode and Ntlaza on Tuesday hundreds of angry villagers blockaded the route with huge trees, rocks and burning tyres.
They are demanding the tarring of nearly 50km of a gravel access road between St Barnabas Hospital and Hluleka nature reserve.
They also accused Eastern Cape roads and transport MEC Weziwe Tikana of lying to them claiming she had promised that a project to tar the road would start in October last year.
There are reportedly close to 50 villages under four Nyandeni municipal wards and are all serviced by the St Barnabas Hospital.Ntlaza to Hluleka development forum chair Thembinkosi Gwaji said Tikana had told them that she had put together a budget to tar the contentious gravel road.
"A lot of people have died on this road among them pregnant women being rushed to hospital tp give birth," said Gwaji.
"Even sickly and frail people in need of urgent medical attention have died on the road because it is littered with potholes and impassable on rainy days."..