Violent boundary stand-off hits schools, businesses

ONGOING violent demarcation protests in Barberton, Mpumalanga, have resulted in vandalism, burning of government buildings, the disruption of schools and businesses for about a month.

In 2016, the Umjindi local municipality was merged with Mbombela local municipality to establish the City of Mbombela local municipality as a metro. Barberton was part of the former Umjindi local municipality.

The residents of the mining town embarked on the strike action and demanded to be transferred back to Umjindi local municipality due to allegations of poor service delivery, water scarcity, electricity shortages, loss of jobs and unfair tender allocation in the metro.

The protesters also complained about the lack of job opportunities at the Barberton prison and the mines in the town.

“Since the amalgamation, it was clear that the bankrupt Mbombela just needed Umjindi for purposes of getting a metro status; now that it has not received it, Umjindi residents are neglected and left without service delivery,” DA proportional representation councillor Philip Minnaar said.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said 37 people, including two protest leaders, have been arrested.

Former ANC ward councillor Mandla Mamba and former University of Limpopo student representative council president Njabulo Mkhonto were arrested in separate incidents over the weekend.

Hlathi said the protesters also set three trucks alight last week and vandalised the Barberton public library.

On Monday, protesters allegedly set alight the ANC constituency offices and the municipality building in the town in retaliation to Mamba and Mkhonto’s arrests.

“The community of Umjindi is going through difficult times and the DA strongly supports the reasons behind the strike action but cannot condone the violent actions from the striking group,” Minnaar said.

Schools in the area were also forced to close on Monday until the Mpumalanga Department of Education can guarantee the safety of the learners.

The Education Department spokesperson Gerald Sambo said the Barberton circuit has 14 535 learners from 14 primary and five secondary schools, who are out of school.

Businesses in the town have also been forced to keep their doors closed to prevent protesters from damaging their properties.

The owner of a restaurant, who asked not to be unnamed, said since the protest started he has lost money because he would only open his shop intermittently when the situation is quiet.

“The situation is bad and I’m losing money,” he said.

Mpumalanga Department of Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesperson George Mthethwa said the MEC Mandla Msibi has already met with the striking community members twice and indicated that an application was sent to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) for the re-establishment of the Umjindi local municipality.

“We are still waiting for the outcome, of which he (Msibi) indicated that it will not be done right now. There are processes that must be followed but it’s MDB that’s taking care of that application,” he said.

He added that the allegations of non-recruitment at the mines was escalated to the Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe and that the allocation of non-recruitment at the prison by the Department of Correctional Services was found to be false as a majority of the employees were from Barberton or previously lived in the town. |