Africa-Press – South-Africa. The oversight visit of Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille and the mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, Eugene Johnson, to the Baywest Mall was disrupted by a protesting group of small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) owners.
De Lille and Johnson’s visit to Nelson Mandela Bay on Tuesday was related to three significant infrastructure development programmes on the N2 Nodal Development project.
The total value of the project amounts to over R18 billion.
De Lille was provided with an update on the Baywest City development, an extension of the Baywest Mall.
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The construction included an 87 500m2 regional shopping centre, with approximately 250 retail outlets, a fun factory, an ice rink, a food court and designer stores.
A group of disgruntled SMME owners forcefully opened a Ster-Kinekor gate at the mall to disrupt the meeting held by Johnson, De Lille and stakeholders involved in the Baywest City development.
The situation took a turn for the worst when the owners demanded to engage with the mayor and De Lille.
After talks with the disgruntled owners failed, there was an attempt to escort De Lille and Johnson out of the venue. But it was soon abandoned as the situation escalated and the crowd grew more agitated.
Social media posts showed the minister and the mayor seemingly being forced to seek refuge in the toilets at the Baywest Mall.
De Lille’s spokesperson, Zara Nicholson, however, said the minister and Johnson “actually went into a boardroom next to the bathrooms and continued their engagements with the people leading the protests”.
“They [De Lille and Johnson] were not hiding, this is untrue,” said Nicholson.
The protesters were dispersed by police, who were at the scene in minutes.
Johnson’s spokesperson, Mzobanzi Jikazana, was not readily available for comment.
Earlier, the protesting owners had blocked off Harrower Road in the early hours of the morning, seemingly to disrupt the visit by the Johnson and De Lille.
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Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu confirmed to News24 that “three people were arrested for public violence on Tuesday morning after about 60 SMME owners blocked off Harrower Road”.
She said the three were later released.
Naidu was hesitant to link the protesting group to the SMME owners, who disrupted the visit by the minister and the mayor, despite numerous social media posts suggesting that it was the same group who ended up at Baywest Mall and caused havoc.
The N2 Nodal Development forms part of the Infrastructure Investment Plan approved by the Cabinet in May 2020.
It was gazetted as the Strategic Integrated Project 24e, in line with the Infrastructure Development Act in July 2020.
The Infrastructure Investment Plan forms a central part of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan aimed at stimulating economic growth and job creation. It was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2020.
The president said the Infrastructure Investment Plan was the “flywheel to economic growth”.
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