The community of Middelburg in Mpumalanga went on the rampage this week, burning trucks and barricading roads in protest against new tariff hikes by the municipality.
Though community members said the Steve Tshwete local municipality had implemented a 100% increase on their municipal accounts, none of them were able to provide Sowetan with their statements for verification.
However, the municipality told Sowetan that there was no 100% hike and that the real issue was the indigent register which had names of unqualifying people like police officers and nurses on it, which it was now fixing.
Community members in Mhluzi, Rockdale, Hlalamnandi, Rodenbosh and Nasaret took to the streets in the early hours of yesterday, blocking roads with burning tyres, rocks and other objects.
A truck and a bus were set alight on Wednesday night in the protests that started on Tuesday.
Yesterday, the protest led to a shutdown of all businesses, while children were not able to go to school.
“We have been doing well and respecting the municipality on their increment but this time around they went far. These people must know that many of us are unemployed and they just increase electricity, water and rates,” said community member Sipho Nkosi.
Nkosi said he was on the road and was unable to send his statement to Sowetan.
Another resident, Joyce Mahlangu, said the municipality was using a new billing system charging them more for services.
“From what I was paying previously, it has doubled. The municipality is ripping us off,” she said, but was unable to provide her statements to Sowetan.
Municipal spokesperson Prudence Magutle, however, denied that they had increased tariffs by 100%, saying it was only a 3.9% hike.
“What we have seen here is that the problem emanated when the municipality started fixing the indigent register as ordered by the auditor-general that there were people who didn’t qualify to be on it as some worked for government and have stable income of more than R3,700 [per month], hence they took to the streets.
“On Monday, we called the community to talk to them, but there was no solution and instead they left and started mobilising.
“The truth is that in the indigent register there are people who are working for government ... police, nurses, teachers and others who are not in the R3,700 salary category to be getting free services from the municipality, and when we clamped on that they didn’t like it,” said Magutle.
Provincial police said the situation remained tense on Thursday and that they have since called for calm.
“On Wednesday, a truck was torched at Mhluzi while a bus was burnt in Middelburg. Six suspects were arrested at Mhluzi on charges of public violence and appeared in court on Thursday (on Thursday). On Thursday, they (community) tried to attack and torch the police station but were intercepted,” police spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli said.
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