About 150 community members blocked the entrance to the town of Centane, on October 19, as they protested over the abandoned resealing and resurfacing project of the pothole riddled R409 road, connecting Centane and Butterworth.
This comes as protest leaders are accusing the provincial government of empty promises, saying they were promised that a new contractor would be appointed and on-site months ago.
The initial main contractor, Mamlambo Construction, abandoned the project after it reportedly went into liquidation.
“We resorted to the protest action because we do not know what is happening with the road project as the company that was hired for the job simply removed the tar road it was supposed to fix and left us with a gravel road and disappeared,” said community leader and South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) Centane secretary, Mvuseleli Tonisi.
Tonisi further said that they had given the Transport MEC, Xolile Nqatha, until the end of the current week to explain what had stalled the road project, failing which they would intensify their protest action.
He said that they would also demand answers about the R130 million that was initially budgeted for the road project.
The road project was supposed to have been completed by the end of May, this year.
Mnquma Business Forum chairperson, Zukile Mbelani, has blamed the latest protest action on the failure of the provincial Department of Transport to be transparent with stakeholders in the project.
“We were kept in the dark about what was happening with the project by the Department of Transport.
“We even took it upon ourselves as the business fraternity to approach the project liaison committee to raise our concerns with the poor workmanship and the snail’s pace of the initial main contractor long before the problems that it experienced that led to it abandoning the site,” said Mbelani.
He further raised concerns at the negative impact the delays in the road project have had on businesses.
“As things stand this whole debacle has had and continues to have a negative impact on business activity. Tourists visiting beaches in Centane are now using the Kei Mouth route to access these destinations which means businesses who previously benefited from these tourists are losing income because of this,” Mbelani added.
Police spokesperson, Captain Siphokazi Mawisa, added that police made eight arrests during the protest.
“Public order policing (POP) was summoned to monitor the situation and eight suspects, aged between 23 and 60, were arrested for public violence and contravention of the Road Traffic Act,” Mawisa said.
The Eastern Cape Department of Transport spokesperson, Makhaya Komisa, said procurement processes to get a new contractor to complete the project were underway.
“We can confirm that the contractor we had appointed for the project, Mamlambo Construction, has left the project unfinished, as they were put under liquidation. The department is in the process of finding another contractor to complete the project and as soon as the process is complete, the road project will be completed. The project is estimated to be worth over R50 million rand,” Komisa said.
