Scores of angry members of the Mangaung Concerned Community (MCC) have cordoned off the entrance leading to the metro's Bram Fischer building. One of the leaders of the MCC, Donald Constable, gave instructions to the drivers of vehicles entering and leaving the premises of the metro, that services will be shut down. Vehicles have thereafter been refused entry and told to turn back. Constable tells OFM News that residents want a Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), Patrick Monyakoane, to be axed.

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"We handed over a memorandum in which we stated it clearly that we want Patrick Monyakoane to be axed by the municipality. He is a dictator in Mangaung. He overwrites the mayor and everybody in the ANC and he also now opened the metro police, which is a waste. There is no need for the metro police, we don't need them. There is no money in Mangaung and yet they come here and open the metro police. We feel that he is not representing us at all in the Mangaung region," he adds.

The MCC says they have been informed that the Mayor of the Metro, Mxolisi Siyonzana, is not around and is in Thaba Nchu.

Wednesday's protest march at the Metro comes months after the shutdown protest was suspended, owing to negotiations between the leadership of the Metro and the MCC in June 2021.

One of the demands was the Metro Council should be dissolved and an administrator must be appointed to oversee and run the affairs of the ailing Metro.

Leaders of the Mangaung protests, which brought parts of Bloemfontein to a standstill in June, argued at that time that the council failed to properly provide oversight by allowing corruption to thrive under its watch.

OFM News/Lucky Nkuyane & Kekeletso Mosebetsi