By Nico van Burick
The community of Hlohlolwane (Clocolan) organised a roadblock in an attempt to draw attention to their years-long struggle to repair the road between this town and Marquard. And their effort has now borne fruit.
A delegation from the Free State government arrived at the roadblock yesterday (10 July), experienced the poor condition of the road for themselves with their sedan vehicle, and then received a memorandum of grievances.
At the end of the protest Deonne Roux, rural safety representative for the Clocolan Farmers’ Association, said the police were present in large numbers, but there was a good atmosphere and everything went smoothly.
He said there were more than 300 people at the roadblock and there was great solidarity among all those affected by the problem. He says the distance between Hlohlolwane and Marquard is about 30km, but no one can travel that distance in an ordinary sedan car in under an hour.
AJ van Rooyen, a farmer from Hlohlolwane, said they were eventually met by the delegation from the MEC for Community Safety, Roads and Transport‘s office and the memorandum was read to the delegation. The delegation then set off for a turnoff about halfway between Hlohlolwane and Marquard to determine for themselves how the journey in their own light vehicle on the bad road would go so that they could experience what the local residents have to experience daily.
According to Van Rooyen there were about 300 vehicles at the roadblock in the morning. “Everyone was calm with their taxis, road graders, tractors and other vehicles on the road and were waiting to see if any representatives of the provincial government from Bloemfontein were going to speak to us.”
If there was no response from the authorities, the plan was that the group would leave at lunchtime to block the R26 highway between Bethlehem and Bloemfontein.
Chris Bender, a farmer from the area and chair of a community meeting on 8 July, said the road in question, the R708, deteriorated to a critical level years ago. He said they all have to meet legal safety requirements, but the authorities are not paying attention. He said the road was rebuilt in 2017 at a cost of R74 million, but the tender now awarded is for R274 million. He believes it only benefits cadres.
He said the entire community is tired of politicians’ actions. “The government is not doing its job. Even the contractor is dissatisfied. The budget has been approved, the contract has been approved, but the contractor is not being paid. Everyone is suffering. That is why we are standing together to find solutions.
“We don’t want political parties here. It is an economic issue to fix the road – to improve lives and get the economy going.”
Bender said they were looking forward to a positive gathering where everyone could get to know each other better. They specifically closed the road away from residential areas so that the business representatives could get to know each other better.
Roux said the entire community, including farmers, residents and the taxi associations, feels the fact that everyone has a common goal means better relationships are being built throughout the community. “There is a sense of togetherness. Everyone is tired of the problems and costs the bad road is causing.”
