Protests disrupting traffic have erupted in two areas of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro in the Eastern Cape on Thursday morning.
Police spokesperson Andre Beetge says two roads are blocked in Kamesh and on the Rocklands road at the Elands road turnoff.
He says police are on the scene. Protest action since Monday has caused havoc in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Beetge also says the fire at the Algoa Bus depot in Motherwell on Wednesday evening destroyed eight buses with an estimated value of R12-million.
?NELSON MANDELA BAY TAXI-RELATED VIOLENCE CONDEMNED.
We condemn the taxi-related violence that erupted in many parts of Nelson Mandela Bay today.
There is no place for the violence and destruction we have witnessed today[THREAD] pic.twitter.com/jrLUakclkT— Mayor Nqaba Bhanga (@nbhanga) May 25, 2021
“At this point, the police and the fire department are looking for the cause of the fire. We cannot say if it is a taxi-related protest at this point as there was no witness seeing perpetrators at the scene.”
Nelson Mandela Bay municipality condemns taxi-related protest in the metro
Impact on port operations
Meanwhile, the taxi strike has had a negative impact on port operations. Transnet has indicated that they have activated business continuity plans.
Port Manager Rajesh Dana says they will continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to avoid any potential port delays.
“The taxi strike and associated protest started yesterday in Gqeberha, it did have an impact on both terminal operations as well as marine operation in the port of Port Elizabeth. With the start of the incident, we immediately activated business continuity plans as result. We were able to contain the negative impact on port operations. We had been working closely with all stakeholders in order to normalise port operations in the port of Port Elizabeth,” says Dana.
