Protesters torch truck, stone cars

A TRUCK was torched and two vehicles stoned during a protest that saw the N2 near Colchester shut down on Wednesday night.

Norman Howley, 54, was en route to East London to deliver the Daily Dispatch newspaper when his truck was petrolbombed at 9.30pm.

Chaos erupted when residents blocked off the national route with burning tyres after Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan failed to turn up for a scheduled outreach meeting.

“A group of people blocked the road and they came to my truck,” Howley said.

“They ordered me to get out . . . I jumped out and ran away.

“I saw them throwing a petrol bomb at the truck.”

Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge said: “It happened after the police had used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.”

He said there had been talk of protesters wanting to burn a house in Colchester.

“So when they left the N2 the police followed them, but it is clear that it was their way of getting the police off the road because that was when a truck was torched and two cars stoned.”

Jordaan’s chief of staff, Mlungisi Ncame, said the mayor had met a delegation from Colchester on Tuesday to discuss land, title deeds and other issues that had to be included in the meeting.

It had been decided the issues raised would require more time for preparation and the meeting was postponed to April 18.

“The delegation . . . undertook to relay the message to the community,” Ncame said.