Protesters in Komani, Eastern Cape, have shut down businesses as part of their ongoing protest against poor service delivery and corruption.
The residents are complaining about incomplete projects, and prolonged power outages which they say are caused by a lack of infrastructure maintenance. They are also angry about the dilapidated historical buildings in the town.
One of the protest leaders, Thulani Bukani, says they have engaged with local businesses in the area and they are optimistic to keep the protest peaceful.
“Yes, we must admit the closure of the businesses, everything happened haphazardly here because the community was burning with anger. We just had a meeting with the business fraternity here just now to engage each other so that we can be on the same page because we did not have time to engage with them we only came up with a proposal that we don’t want the march to spill over to their business where we find the crowd uncontrollable and ending up looting the shops.”
