Queenstown has been rocked by service delivery protests since the start of the week and on Thursday, chaos erupted when disgruntled residents clashed with law enforcement authorities.
Queenstown service delivery protests: Here are the latest updates
Eastern Cape’s public order police unit was deployed to break out protest activity in various hotspot locations in and around the Enoch Mgijima municipality.
Details around the unrest are still sketchy. However, according to reports, Queenstown residents took to the streets earlier this week to vent their frustrations with the lack of service delivery.
From what we understand, several communities have been without electricity for days, without a notice from the municipality on the work being done to address the outages.
Moreover, residents flocked to social media to lament the ANC-led Enoch Mgijima municipality’s incompetence after Enoch Mgijima mayor Madoda Papiyana made several shocking statements during an interview with Vukani community radio earlier this week.
Speaking to radiocaster Malixole Teketa, Papiyana shrugged off all accountability for the potholes that plague motorists in the district, and simply stated, in no uncertain terms, that the dilapidated state of the roads was not his concern.
“The potholes were here when I came into the job. I did not bring potholes along with me. They were there when I got here. These potholes have been here for years. So, who will fix them?” Papiyana scoffed.
Translated from IsiXhosa
At this time, an update has yet to surface from Queenstown police on their aggressive handling of the service delivery protests, where it’s reported stun grenades and rubber bullets were used to disperse crowds.
We will furnish more details as the story develops.
In the meantime, here are some of the videos of the fiery service delivery protests doing the rounds on social media: