Early this afternoon, New Rest residents sat down in protest of still not having housing afforded to them, closing the R67 and bringing traffic to a standstill.
The community have been up in arms for the last few weeks, following failure from the Department of Human Settlements refusal, to engage with them. They want houses, and have been waiting for 17 years.
Ndlambe municipality explained that it wasn’t in their portfolio to supply houses, but, would contact the department. Since then, several more protests have flared up. Yesterday, New Rest residents marched to the Ndlambe municipal offices where Mayor, Phindile Faxi, explained that seven days was too short a time to settle the issue.
Black smoke smothered the air around noon, with SAPS, Traffic Control and the Ndlambe Fire Department on the scene.
Fires were doused, but the community refused to leave, and remained seated.
No Ndlambe councilors, nor officials, were present at the protest. The executive had allegedly been in meetings in Port Elizabeth.
