Road construction firm wants protesters jailed for contempt

RESIDENTS of Mevana Village in Lusikisiki are fighting back against East London construction company Mamlambo, which wants them jailed for contempt of court.

This follows ongoing protest action against the N2 Wild Coast (N2WC) toll road.

Construction giant Mamlambo last year obtained an urgent interdict against residents prohibiting them from unlawfully disrupting its training of emerging sub-contractors or from harassing or intimidating its staff or trainees.

Community leader Thando Dlanga, who is named in the contempt application, says in his answering affidavit that residents were up in arms over the South African National Roads Agency’s broken promises.

Sanral’s ambitious multibillion-rand project will see the N2WC toll road stretch from East London to Durban.

Much of the project involves upgrading the existing road.

But the area causing the community heartache and the construction company frustration is the so-called greenfields section between Ndwalane outside Port St Johns and the Umtamvuna River near Port Edward.

This section has never had major road infrastructure. Preliminary work has begun.

Dlanga said Sanral made extensive promises to the community to ensure their support, including that local SMMEs would be trained and receive contracts to assist in the road construction.

He said Sanral also promised that 70% of jobs would go to locals, and construction would not start on land owned or occupied by households until agreement was reached on compensation.

All these promises were broken, he said.

Sanral had contracted Mamlambo Construction in East London to provide training to SMMEs while simultaneously constructing significant sections of access roads in Mevana.

“No SMMEs from Mevana have been included in this project.”

Protests had continued after the interdict, but police had refused to arrest or prosecute residents over allegations that they violated the interdict.

Dlanga denies the community breached the interdict and says the company was using this fabricated reason to intimidate them and stop them demanding Sanral meet its promises to them.

The community’s attorney, Johan Lorenzen, who works at human rights lawyer Richard Spoor’s Johannesburg firm, yesterday confirmed Dlanga would oppose the contempt application.

He said no date had yet been set for the matter to be argued in the Mthatha High Court as Mamlambo had yet to file a replying affidavit.

Mamlambo manager for its training project Dale Bickell says in an affidavit they resorted to the contempt application after Dlanga and others had repeatedly threatened them and prevented work from proceeding, in conflict with the interdict.

He said police were hesitant to arrest them, and Mamlambo staff and management feared for their safety because of the ongoing threat of violence.