Happy Valley protestors out on bail

RESIDENTS of Happy Valley in Blackheath stieked uit for four manne by paying for their bail after they were arrested on Monday after chaos erupted during a protest due to poor service delivery.

Siyabonga Gwabeni, 35, Lizelle Gwabeni, 32, Dickson Cossa, 26 and Clifton Andrews, 45, made their first appearance at the Blue Downs Magistrate court following their arrest facing charges of public violence.

The court heard that the accused were granted bail of R5 000 each and the case was postponed to 3 August for bail information.

Members of the community were relieved to hear they were granted bail and said that they would be willing to pay for them.

This comes after mense protested on Monday, complaining about poor service delivery. 

Community leader Thomas Sokhahelelo explained at the time: “There is a budget that is allocated for the taxi rank, but we do not have a taxi rank here and R2 million was allocated. 

“[We were told] that they were going to spend that money on infrastructure.

“There is also an issue of electricity in our community. Each and every house there is no electricity. There are only one or two houses that have electricity. Those people have been left in the dark for three months.” 

Mense demanded answers from ward councillor Kariena Mare, who told the Daily Voice that a meeting is expected to be held on Friday with five community leaders and five community members on the outrage happening in Happy Valley.