Angry residents from the village of Bunzhe, east of Thohoyandou, marched to the Thulamela Local Municipality's offices last Friday morning to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
Singing freedom songs and carrying placards demanding that the municipality provide their village with basic services such as water, roads and electricity, the residents also called for the immediate removal of a local councillor.
Heavily armed police prevented the group from entering the municipality's offices, forcing them to hand over the memorandum at the gate.
The community's spokesperson, Mr Elekanyani Munyai, said the municipality had been making empty promises since 2014, when residents first protested by blocking the Punda Maria road to demand basic services. "We do not want to block the Punda Maria road again and inconvenience motorists while municipal officials who are failing us are drinking coffee here in their offices. We have now decided to come and confront them here," he said.
Munyai added that the community had raised funds to buy sand to gravel the road themselves, but the municipality had failed even to provide graders to complete the work.
The residents are also calling for the removal of Cllr Rofhiwa Mathoma. "We only saw her once when she was introduced to us. But when we come to the municipality for service delivery inquiries, we are told to come with the ward councillor. Where are we going to find her?" he asked.
The protesters gave the municipality seven working days to respond to the memorandum.
When asked what action they would take if the municipality failed to respond within the stipulated time, Munyai said they would escalate the matter to the provincial government. "We know most of us are members of the ANC, but we are not going to be used as voting cows by fat cookies in this municipality. We will fight until we get our human rights services from the corrupt municipal officials," he said.
The memorandum was accepted by the spokesperson for the Thulamela mayor, Mr Ofhani Owen Muebi, who promised the protesters that it would be forwarded to the mayor and her council.