Mpumalanga residents threaten to shut down the Moloto Road.
This is prompted by the delay in the construction of the Moloto rail corridor.
They are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene.
The communities are tired of the delay and that they have to make use of busses and taxis to ply the notoriously unsafe road because they have no rail network.
The residents said they were promised a railway since 1994.
John Skhosana Ka Mahlangu from African Civic said:
“The general feeling of the people in this area is that they are being regarded as second[class] citizens in their own country because they’ve been promised rail for the past 27 years since then nothing has happened.”
“Eight years ago, President Jacob Zuma came to the village to assure people that rail is coming and they have allocated budget for that but since then nothing has happened.”
In September, Mpumalanga residents camped on the lawns of the Union Buildings for 22 days before marching to the Public Protector’s offices to petition for a probe into the project.
The road upgrades were proposed to ease congestion on the Moloto Road that spans 160km across Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo that over 60,000 commuters make use of daily.
