Angry residents of Sikhobeni village in deeply rural Qumbu, who earlier this year were forced to raise money among themselves to fix their dilapidated access roads, say they will not be voting in the upcoming local government elections in November.
The villagers have cited the poor state of gravel roads connecting them to the urban centres, an incomplete RDP housing project and homes that are still waiting to be connected to the power grid, as the motivating factors behind their decision.
This was confirmed by Sikhobeni community leader Hamilton Tokwe on Monday.
He said not a single person in the village had registered to vote during the first voter registration weekend in June and also the last one this month.
“We have a gravel route which I estimate to be about 8km which is in a really bad state,” Tokwe said.
“It was last refurbished by the government as far back as 2010.
“We took a decision not to register to vote. Even [Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality] mayor [Mbulelo] Jara came to the area on the recent voter registration weekend.
“He came to speak to us about this road that is not fixed and has promised to come back and meet us this coming Wednesday.”
Tokwe, a member of the traditional authority in the area, said the road had become so bad after 16 years of neglect that deep dongas had developed on the sides.
On rainy days, it became completely impassable.
“The road is so dilapidated that no car drives on it when it rains.
“The mayor even said it no longer requires patching, it needs to be completely done from scratch.
“There were even pipes laid to allow for water to run across it but they became clogged many years ago and now the dongas get filled with water and it becomes a huge hazard to drive there in wet weather.”
He said soil in some sections of the road had been washed away by rain and now huge rocks were jutting from the road, forcing motorists to have to drive slowly to avoid hitting them.
Sikhobeni falls under Ward 13 in the Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality.
It was reported that though the recent voter registration weekend had gone relatively free from incident, protests by some aggrieved voters in several voting districts including Buffalo City Metro, Nelson Mandela Bay, OR Tambo district, King Sabata Dalindyebo, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Kumkani Mhlontlo and Ntabankulu municipalities had led to delays in the start of voter registration.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission, at least 10 voting stations across six municipalities were marred by community protests and intimidation which had led to disruptions.
In the Kumkani Mhlontlo municipal area, one voting station had reportedly only opened at 2.30pm, leaving residents with less than three hours to register before the stations closed at 5pm.
On Monday, Tokwe claimed residents had raised thousands of rand to fix another dilapidated but better gravel road linking the village to the outside world.
The money had been used to fix sections of the road but heavy rains had come and washed away the cement shortly afterwards.
“When someone gets sick, they have to be sick there in their own home until the roads are dry and cars can drive on them,” he said.
“In a situation where someone dies and the funeral undertaker cannot come to collect the body, we have to keep it until the undertaker makes a plan.”
He said a project to build five RDP homes for destitute families in Sikhobeni had also been abandoned since 2013 with the houses incomplete.
One of the beneficiaries had even used her meagre monthly pension grant from the government to finish the house herself.
“In some, only slabs were built and in others, the contractor built up to the walls only.”
Tokwe claimed several houses which were supposed to have been connected to the electricity grid were still without any connection.
The families were forced to collect wood from a nearby bush to cook meals.
He said community anger had reached boiling point by now, hence the people had decided to stay away from the polls.
Kumkani Mhlontlo municipal spokesperson Mamela Mangcotywa had not responded to questions by the time of publication.
But long-time UDM councillor Zakheni Nondaka whose own village falls within Ward 13 in Mhlontlo, said not everyone in Sikhobeni was so aggrieved to a point where they did not want to go to the polls in November.
Instead, he accused a few individuals in that community, whom he claimed were aligned to the ANC, of bullying and threatening the rest of the community into not registering to vote.
He claimed one of the individuals was using people’s emotions as he wanted to become a ward councillor for the ANC but had failed to get nominated.
“We have not seen anything in writing. The road is not in a good condition but it is still passable even in bad weather.
“There are channels that you have to follow when you are not happy instead of just bullying and threatening people not to register to vote,” Nondaka said.
Daily Dispatch
