We will fight on - Dzwerani residents

Angry residents of Dzwerani, who have been campaigning for years for a road in their village, have vowed to fight on until the government listens to them and constructs a tarred road in their village.

The residents say they had settled in the area in the late 1950s, but so far no evidence exists to indicate that it is an established village, while villages which had sprung up recently have all the basic services such as water and electricity, and to top it all, they have tarred streets.

The furious residents embarked on a total shutdown in the area three weeks ago, with all services in the village coming to a complete halt. Roads leading to Vuwani and the village itself were barricaded with rubble and burning tyres and big rocks.

Officials from the local Thulamela Municipality met the community and a follow-up meeting was scheduled, but the officials did not pitch up. Last Thursday, the community met again at the crossroad to the village, waiting for the delegation from public works and Thulamela, but they did not arrive. This made the residents very angry and an altercation with the police ensued, after which 20 residents were arrested.

They were all conditionally released on Tuesday, without bail. A meeting was held immediately after their release and a community leader,  Mr Avhatakali Makhado, said they were not deterred by the arrests as these were meant to distract them from their goal of fighting for their right to have a road. “We have a problem here; our road from here at the crossing to Mashawana is not accessible. Buses and taxis no longer come to our village because of the poor road. Our people are forced to walk many kilometres to the main road to catch buses and taxis, and it is not safe to walk through the bush early in the morning and late at night when people come back from work.”

He added that they had been engaged with the local Thulamela Municipality and public works department for a long time, but nothing tangible had come out of the meetings.”We have to take the other option, namely shutting down services here - this is the language the government understands,” he said.

Makhado further indicated that after the shutdown last Thursday, they only received a short e-mail from the province, assuring them the road would be tarred in 2020, which they felt was not convincing. He added that 2020 was too far away and that those who were in power now could be gone by then as government leaders were always changing.

“We have suspended the shutdown as of now until next week, but if we do not get a positive response in the meantime, we will be forced to resume the protest and we will march to the premier’s office. Our people are angry, but we have appealed for calm and everything is back to normal again,” said Makhado.

Date:05 March 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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