Fix the Broken N2 Project’ Marches Postponed Amid Political Interference Claims

Two protected community marches planned for 9 and 10 June under the slogan ‘Fix the Broken N2 Project’ have been postponed to early July after alleged last-minute political interventions.

The Amadiba Crisis Committee said marches in Khanyayo and Amadiba — rural communities on the south and north sides of the Mtentu mega bridge project on the N2 Wild Coast Toll Highway — were blocked by municipal officials citing “interventions by the MEC of Transport and Security in Eastern Cape, Xolile Nqatha”.

Nqatha chairs the “N2 political oversight committee”.

ACC spokesperson Nonhle Mbuthuma said communities followed legal procedures to notify authorities about peaceful marches to deliver petitions.

“When communities are following the right procedures and notify, or even ‘apply’, for peaceful marches to deliver petitions about what is going wrong in the N2 project, it is being deliberately sabotaged,” she said.

She alleged two patterns of obstruction: “Either, the applications are ignored, which was the case in Mbizana for a month. Or the SAPS don’t turn up to the meeting and then says they will not protect the march for lack of time, which is the case in Khanyayo.”

Mbuthuma said SANRAL directs communities to municipalities, but “locally, they fear corrupt interests in the N2 project and party factions. They can’t respond and they pass on problems”.

“The N2 project is broken, and the grievance mechanisms are also broken,” she added. “This doesn’t mean the N2 project cannot be repaired. But… The project must take a break. There needs to be a Mid Term Review.”

The ACC said the rescheduled marches in July will target both Amadiba and Khanyayo and will welcome members of the new SANRAL Board plus national ministers of Transport, Environment, Water and Sanitation, Labour and Employment, Land Affairs and Treasury to receive memorandums.

“The crisis in the N2 project concerns all those department,” Mbuthuma said.

She stressed that march applications are a legal formality: “In South African law, an application for a peaceful march is a formality. It is a notice. The applications were presented in good time, and according to the law. The marches will be announced again. This time we expect no sabotage.”

Last year on 12 May, a national Department of Transport representative received a memorandum at the Mtentu bridge site.