Violent service delivery protests, which have become a regular feature at townships across the country, are fast spreading to rural communities.

Only a week ago, the communities of Dumasi and Budeli, just a few kilometres from Thohoyandou, threatened a massive protest action if they were not provided with water at their own yards as promised when the Nandoni Dam was built. These communities situated near the multi-billion-rand Nandoni Dam said they could not let other villages far away from the dam use the water while they went thirsty.

They gave the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) seven days to respond to their demands, failure of which to elicit a positive result, they would stop the running of the dam and blockade the main road leading to Malamulele and the Kruger National Park. Their demands were not attended to and the number of days the municipality was given expired with no positive response.

This apparently made the residents very angry.

True to their word, the angry residents carried out their threat on Tuesday. As early as 04:00, angry residents started barricading the main road to Malamulele with big tree branches, rocks and burning tyres. People going to work, either in Malamulele or Thohoyandou, were left helpless as cars could not pass and buses and taxis were not operating. Many had to walk on foot for kilometres. The situation also badly affected scholars writing examinations.

Singing freedom songs, the hundreds of angry residents even stoned vehicles forcing a passage through the blockades. The police were forced to fire rubber bullets and people fled, whereupon the police managed to open the road leading to the Kruger National Park. This did not deter the protestors, who spent the whole day at the road, singing and dancing.

"People are angry that nothing was done since we handed in a memorandum last week. All we want is a water structure in our villages, but this is not happening as promised. I personally phoned the municipality about our memorandum, but they just seem not to know where it ended up. We think we are being undermined and this is making our people very angry," said community leader Robert Tshamano.

He said the municipality promised them reticulation some seven years ago, but nothing had been done so far. He said they must just do what the people wanted to avoid situations whereby people became out of control.

The angry residents said that was just the beginning of the worst things to come if their demands were not addressed. "We are not giving up. These people think we are stupid and that they can do as they wish. We will show them that we are people and we do not want any favour from them. Water is our right and the worst part of it is that most of us were relocated to make way for this dam, but we are not benefitting in any way," said a woman who wanted to remain anonymous.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Major Mashudu Malelo said there was sporadic stoning of passing cars, but the police managed to clear the road for motorists to pass. He hinted that there were also blockades in other parts of the villages which made it impossible to pass.

“We have opened a public violence case and no one has been arrested so far," said Malelo.

VDM spokesperson Matodzi Ralushai said they had plans to install pipes in both villages but their plans were delayed by the late completion of the dam project "We are in constant engagements with the community and we can advise our communities to be patient. They should also play their part by paying services, which in turn will speed up service delivery in the district," said Ralushai.

Just a few hours before going to press, this paper learnt of the suspension of the protest, after water affairs officials promised to meet with the community.