Mbadlane folk threaten to block royal residence road
SITEKI – Aggrieved residents of Mbadlane have threatened to barricade the main road to Hlane Royal Residence to protest against the delays in compensation for their damaged houses.
They said their actions were targeting the Buganu Festival set for next weekend. The over 40 homeowners, who were affected by the blasting that happened during the construction of the Mbadlane-Hhelehhele Highay, said they held a meeting and discussed means to force government to pay them for the damage to their houses. They claimed that their houses were damaged during the blasting, when the construction of the Hhelehhele-Sikhuphe Freeway took place, between 2016 and 2019.
Nontobeko Simelane, who is from one of the affected families, said the Malindza Royal Kraal promised to engage government on the matter. Simelane stated that they were warned against blocking the road as such would tarnish the image of the chiefdom.
She mentioned that they would go ahead with the idea, unless government intervened and acted on their grievances. “We are not happy because some of the houses were damaged to the extent that, during summer, the rain ingress through the walls. We want to be compensated, failing which we will go ahead with our resolution,” she said.
Five widows are among the over 40 homeowners at Mbandlane whose houses were damaged during the blasting process by Inyatsi Construction Company, when constructing the highway. The resident said last month government sent officials to assess the damage in some of the homesteads and assured them that they would be back soon to give feedback. “We are hoping the residents will receive the feedback before the end of this week so that we know where we stand,” Simelane added.
Dvokodvweni Member of Parliament (MP) Sifiso Shabalala said government was working on addressing the residents’ grievances.
Ministry of Public Works and Transport Principal Secretary (PS) Thulani Mkhaliphi said due processes were being followed to address the matter.
A traditional leader at Mbadlane, Sithembiso Dludlu, said it was unfortunate that government was moving at a snail’s pace when addressing the residents’ grievances. Dludlu stated that the residents were angry and the matter had reached boiling point, as the homeowners wanted to be compensated for the damages to their houses. “We believe government will engage a higher gear in addressing the matter by giving feedback to the affected homeowners,” he said.
Meanwhile, government, on Monday announced that at least E2 million had been set aside to settle arrears outstanding in the compensation of Sikhuphe residents. In 2022, over 300 residents, who were left out of the compensation exercise for damaged houses during the construction of the King Mswati III International Airport, insisted that they were cheated. They wanted to stop the disbursement of the remaining E26 million by government unless their grievances were considered and addressed. Some complained that certain individuals were allegedly compensated yet they did not deserve it. The construction of the airport cost about E4 billion.
Contractor
A letter dated October 24, 2023, written by PS Mkhaliphi, addressed to the Mbandlane committee reads, “The ministry acknowledges receipt of your letter of grievances and wishes to respond on the issue of the cracked houses. The ministry would advise the committee that such grievances should be directed to the contractor responsible for the issue of the cracks emanating from the construction of the road.”
The PS also touched on the issue of destroyed fencing in some of the homes along the road project, stating that those who had their fencing destroyed should report to his office so that the grievance could be discussed.
He also mentioned that the committee should engage the contractor on the issue of the constructed earth dams. “The issue of the earth dams should be addressed to the ministry as no instruction was given to the contractor to construct earth dams. Please be advised that access to homesteads is only available through the service roads and community members are urged to make use of it for safety purposes it cannot be from the freeway directly,” he said when responding to the committee.
Meanwhile, government has disbursed about E46 million to over 100 households whose houses were damaged during the construction of the King Mswati III International Airport and the highway from Mbandlane-Sikhuphe.