In a bid to restore law and order, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison Sipho Hlomuka today (Friday, 20 January 2023) led a high-level team to the area of eNkandla. The visit by Hlomuka follows days of violent public protests which has literally resulted to the shutdown of eNkandla central business district. Since Monday schools have been disrupted, movement of people affected and individual properties damaged. MEC Hlomuka convened a meeting with stakeholders including the representatives of King Cetshwayo District, Nkandla Local Municipality, local traditional leadership and various security structures. He further proceeded to engage with the protesting community members.
The department tabled a comprehensive infrastructure report which detailed plans of fixing and upgrading roads in eNkandla. In some of the projects, professional engineers have already been appointed and work has commenced. The department also briefed the community on the plans to fast track the appointment of contractors working with other state entities such as Independent Development Trust (IDT) and SANRAL. As part of improving the gravel road network, the department will once again redeploy internal teams (Personnel and Equipment) to repair and improve gravel access roads.
Addressing community members, Hlomuka reaffirmed government’s commitment of improving and maintaining the provincial road network. “We have been briefed in detail by the department on the plans of fixing all the affected roads in this area. As engineers have commenced, ours is to make sure that we do not delay the appointment of contractors to start the actual repair of the roads. To some, we will have to source external contractors, but others will be done using our internal capacity as the department. Working together with various stakeholders including Amakhosi, we will sharpen our monitoring mechanism to ensure effective project implementation” said Hlomuka.
Hlomuka appealed to protesting community members to end the protest action and open the town to economic activities. He also condemned incidents of violence and the torching of properties including a mobile ambulance. There is currently heavy police presence in the area who are monitoring the situation.