Protesters promise to shut down Elliot over poor service delivery

Residents of Sakhisizwe village and municipality employees in Elliot held a protest in front of council offices on Thursday.

The employees and the residents promised to shut down the council offices until their demands were met. On top of their demands were service delivery issues and the removal of the municipal manager Dumile Mvuleni, who returned last week from a six-month suspension.

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Acting mayor Buyiswa Ntsere acknowledged the protest and refused to comment any further.

Resident Mthethokamthetho Ndamase said: “There are two issues at hand here: the lack of service delivery and the reinstatement of a municipal manager who is the reason for a lack of service delivery.”

Resident Wandi Mhayi said: “The problem we have is that there are no operations of service delivery.

“They’ve told us that they have no money. There are areas like Ndondo, which doesn’t have access roads for police and ambulances in cases of emergencies. It was extremely difficult for them to reach residents when we had torrential rains last week.

“We were promised these roads a year ago, but to date there is not a single indication that these roads will be built.”

Mhayi added that the issue of unemployment remained a big issue in the area.