The Herald (South Africa)
Fresh hope for George woman in Thai jail
Hope has flickered back to life for the family of Ashley Oosthuizen — the young George woman who once faced death on a foreign shore — after another reduction in the sentence that has kept her behind bars in Thailand for nearly six years. Now 26,...
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‘Rest in peace, Wayden Ben, the lockdown king’
The body of a once-popular content creator, rapper and musician, best known for his tracks, lip-syncing and viral rapping duets across TikTok and Instagram, was found in Gqeberha on Tuesday morning. The 25-year-old Malabar resident, Wavern Boggenpoel,...
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Three accused of devastating crime spree across Bay
Three men accused of unleashing a month-long wave of terror across Nelson Mandela Bay appeared in court yesterday on close to 50 charges including murder, kidnapping, attempted murder and the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The state...
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BAIC SA negotiations hit the brakes as strike continues
Negotiations between BAIC SA and Numsa have reached another dead end, with the vehicle manufacturer withdrawing from talks at the eleventh hour as a month-long strike continues to cripple operations at its Coega plant. This comes as unconfirmed claims...
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Family’s turmoil as murder accused Evans back in court
More than a year after Gqeberha mother Vanessa van Rensburg was killed, her boyfriend is due in court this week for a pre-trial conference, as her grieving family continues to endure a slow, painful wait for answers — and accountability. In the...
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One hour, two killings: Brazen attacks rock Bay
KwaNobuhle residents are living in the grip of terror after two people were killed in the space of an hour in brazen daylight attacks this week. Though police could not confirm at this stage if the incidents were linked, witnesses claimed to have seen...
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Man ‘assaulted, abducted’ by group wearing police uniforms
A distraught family is desperately seeking answers regarding the whereabouts of a Gqeberha man, alleging that he was abducted from his home by a group of men wearing police uniforms. Though the SAPS was initially investigating a missing person case in...
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Newton Park pool saga triggers ripple effects
The Newton Park Swimming Pool renovations project continues to cause waves of uncertainty and dismay, with organisers of a national water polo event that was scheduled to take place next month opting to pull the plug. In addition, the heating of the...
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Municipality coughs up big-time for sick leave
The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality forked out a staggering R462.36m for sick leave over a period of five years. Employees clocked up a total of 367,283 sick days, about 119,000 of which were taken without medical certificates. The municipality has a...
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The dark truth about Bay’s traffic lights
One here, one there ... traffic lights are down everywhere. A Herald team took a quick trip through Nelson Mandela Bay and found almost 200 traffic lights to be non-operational across just three streets, with more failures scattered around the...
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Suspect plays the keyboard as church robbery ‘circus’ unfolds
A church robbery in Nelson Mandela Bay briefly turned into an unsolicited musical interlude when one of the robbers made a beeline for the keyboard. The man was apparently unable to resist playing his favourite tune while his alleged accomplices held...
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‘Fixing Bay is like saving a pig stuck in the mud’
Government officials tore into Nelson Mandela Bay’s political and administrative leadership yesterday during a return visit to the city by co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) deputy minister Namane Dickson Masemola. The...
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New electricity tariffs a sucker punch for low-usage households
The full impact of Nelson Mandela Bay’s new electricity tariffs is beginning to emerge, with low-consumption households facing massive increases after the municipality abolished the inclining block tariff and introduced a single flat rate. The...
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We’re in limbo, say foreign nationals at shelter near harbour
Dozens of foreign nationals based in Gqeberha have fled their homes and moved to a temporary shelter in South End for fear of being targeted by local communities. While many have already returned to their countries of origin, a group of about 100...
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Double, double toil and trouble — water’s brown and starts to bubble!
Complaints from residents in certain areas of the metro about dirty, discoloured and bubbling tap water have intensified the scrutiny of Nelson Mandela Bay’s failing water infrastructure. Councillors say the floods this year did not cause the crisis...
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Poor spending, staff shortages fuel water crisis
Despite months of intermittent disruptions and muddy water across Nelson Mandela Bay, the municipality has spent just a fraction of its infrastructure and engineering capital budget for the 2025/2026 financial year. It has also only filled three of 73...
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Clock ticking to get Gqeberha ready for huge lifesaving event
The Lifesaving World Championships, due to take place in Gqeberha in November, could be at risk as the required renovation of the Newton Park Swimming Pool, scheduled to finish at the end of this month, is yet to begin. The event is anticipated to...
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How national protest day played out in Bay
While an uneasy calm hung in the air in the Nelson Mandela Bay zones that had been identified as potential flashpoints for the March and March movement protests, small groups of demonstrators gathered in other pockets of the metro yesterday. In Kuyga,...
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Girl’s death reignites calls for vigilance with the online world
A family in Zwide is grappling with an unimaginable loss after a 12-year-old girl was found dead in her bedroom in the early hours of Sunday — a tragedy that has renewed urgent conversations about children’s safety on digital platforms. While the...
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Cable thieves ‘pretend to be maintenance workers’
Traffic cones were placed along 5th Avenue in Newton Park and traffic was diverted as a crew worked methodically between the utility poles for days, in full view of residents and passing motorists. There was no rush, no attempt to hide and nothing to...
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Security tightened to keep order in Bay on June 30
Security measures have been put in place in Nelson Mandela Bay ahead of the planned March and March movement protests set to take place across the country on June 30. Provincial community safety MEC Xolile Nqatha and Eastern Cape police commissioner...
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Sydenham family devastated after child’s mysterious death
What began as an ordinary afternoon of childhood play ended in heartbreak for a Gqeberha family after an 11-year-old girl died at her Sydenham home when she seemingly became entangled in a gown rope. Kungawo Mehlo, a grade 6 Sydenham Primary School...
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Sewage-contaminated water surrounds Colchester homes
For nearly two months, more than a dozen Colchester families’ homes have been engulfed in foul-smelling stagnant water and sewage after a stormwater retention pond burst its banks, leaving houses damaged, gardens submerged and residents accusing the...
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Pregnant woman grateful baby wasn’t harmed in shooting
“I didn’t realise I had been shot at first but when I ran into the yard and got to the gate, I started feeling that I couldn’t go any further.” These were the words of a pregnant woman who was wounded when an unknown gunman opened fire on a group of...
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Slain Bay councillor ‘was friendly and respectful’
A kind and respectful man who served his community with integrity and purpose. That was how Zwide residents and colleagues remembered ANC ward councillor Sicelo Mleve, who was shot dead on Saturday evening during a voter registration debriefing...
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‘A city in paralysis’
With municipal phone lines down for days, councillors across Nelson Mandela Bay became the city’s unofficial call centre, fielding hundreds of complaints daily as residents grappled with water outages, power cuts and a growing list of service delivery...
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What’s Lungisa’s next step?
Emerging as an early frontrunner on the ANC’s PR councillor candidate nomination list in Nelson Mandela Bay, Andile Lungisa believes this has strengthened his mayoral ambitions and warns that any attempt by national bosses to impose a candidate will be...
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J-Bay murder accused found not guilty
Donovan Wolf, who was accused of murdering a Jeffreys Bay man, has been found not guilty by the Gqeberha high court. The judgment comes five years after Wolf was charged with the murder of fellow Wavecrest resident Clyde Stuurman. Stuurman, 26, was...
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Young and jobless: Residents share pain ahead of Youth Day
For Khanyiswa Plaaitjies, her weekly ritual has become a test of endurance as she carries a bag filled with CVs, going from shop to shop and business to business, handing out copies with little success. Plaaitjies and her wheelchair-bound father are...
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Too much manganese dust, so what’s the game plan?
With dust fallout linked to manganese-ore handling now reflecting chronic non-compliance, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality wants to let the leases for bulk storage at the Gqeberha harbour expire next year and not be renewed. The municipality’s air...
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Report takes Makana to task: ‘Human rights cannot wait’
A damning new report by the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has declared the Makana municipality’s ongoing water and sanitation crisis a violation of fundamental constitutional rights. After more than three years of investigations, complaints and...
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Residents gripped by fear after group gunned down
KwaDwesi residents have been left traumatised and terrified after armed criminals stormed a home, forcing the occupants to access their banking apps and then stealing their phones and opening fire. Three people died at the scene and a fourth died in...
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Appeal pays off for Greyvensteins
After a years-long battle, the appeal court has set aside a Legal Practice Council (LPC) report against large Gqeberha law firm Greyvensteins Inc, finding that the investigation committee overstepped its powers and created a reasonable perception of...
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Painful memories, fresh trauma as the heavens open again
Having barely begun to recover from the last bout of heavy rains, parts of Nelson Mandela Bay and Kouga were once again battered by relentless downpours — compounding damage, displacing residents and pushing already swollen rivers closer to breaking...
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WHAT A WASTE!
A R2.9m state-of-the-art maternity ward at Dora Nginza Hospital is standing locked, unused and gathering dust — seven months after it was completed — despite ongoing pressure on public healthcare services. Behind the sealed doors lie brand-new...
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Howzat! Bay set for whopper of a World Cup innings
Nelson Mandela Bay is on the front foot, having been designated as a host destination for six games during the 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, with the event expected to generate R1.9bn in economic activity for the area. And with the spectacle...
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Speculation grows over Bay’s future with Ironman
Nelson Mandela Bay is fighting to hold on to one of its most prized international sporting events as growing speculation suggests Ironman may shift its flagship African Championship to Mossel Bay. While metro officials insist discussions with the...
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Alexandria residents outraged over boy’s gruesome death
Residents are in an uproar following a horrific incident that unfolded in Alexandria last week when the body of a fouryear-old boy was found at the bottom of a drain after his mother had reported him missing earlier in the day. The incident sparked...
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How much to fix our broken Bay?
A total of R31bn — that is how much is needed to get Nelson Mandela Bay back on track, arrest years of collapse and rebuild some of the failing infrastructure. The figure is drawn from a situation analysis report on the municipality dated February...
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Scathing! Business community gives metro a ‘snotklap’
Nelson Mandela Bay’s business community has delivered one of its most scathing assessments yet of the metro’s decline, describing a city where governance has buckled under political turbulence, accountability has thinned and basic services are no...
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Gamtoos Valley faces long, challenging road to recovery
Three weeks after floodwaters surged through the Gamtoos Valley, leaving parts of the area submerged under nearly 3m of water, residents and business owners are still grappling with the devastating aftermath — clearing mud-soaked homes, salvaging what...
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‘Province’s greatest natural asset is in real danger’
The Eastern Cape’s network of nature reserves is under growing strain, with chronic underfunding, crumbling infrastructure and rising poaching threats placing the province’s conservation efforts at risk. However, the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism...
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‘We’ve got to dodge and queue in Pothole Avenue’
Nelson Mandela Bay’s roads are a maze of potholes, with motorists forced to dodge patchworks of broken tar daily along major routes and residential streets. Residents across the city say pothole-ridden roads are damaging vehicles, disrupting...
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BAIC workers raise a host of grievances
Workers at vehicle assembler BAIC SA have accused the company of cutting wages, paying late and withholding overtime payments. Employees claim their hourly rates were slashed from about R120 to less than R50. Another allegation is that certain...
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Baby tragedies: Inside Dora Nginza’s devastating record
Under immense pressure and facing a range of challenges, Dora Nginza Hospital has tragically recorded the highest number of perinatal deaths of any health institution in the Eastern Cape for the third year in a row. The hospital is inundated with...
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‘Livingstone staff should have kept their eyes on my son’
The family of a Gqeberha teenager is demanding answers after his sudden death at Livingstone Hospital, where he fell and hit his head while recovering from an appendectomy. Keanu Friskin, 16, described as a promising young soccer player with a bright...
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Walmer residents blow a gasket over tuk-tuk business
The municipality has launched an investigation into a controversial tuk-tuk business operating from a residential area in Walmer, where mounting complaints have arisen over alleged illegal land use, persistent noise and safety concerns. Officials are...
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Unsafe and neglected: Inside Bay’s undignified cemeteries
Neglect, crime and flood damage have turned Nelson Mandela Bay’s cemeteries into scenes of devastation, where grieving families must navigate sunken graves, stolen tombstones and even the threat of robbery. The crisis was thrust into sharp focus last...
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It never rains but it pours for SPCA
The farming community of Kruisrivier near Kariega has raised fresh concerns over plans to relocate the Uitenhage SPCA to a flood-prone property after last week’s heavy rains left the proposed site waterlogged and strewn with debris. Following three...
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‘You’re in a snake park,’ new acting city manager warned
Nelson Mandela Bay’s newest acting city manager, Charity Sihunu, was warned that she was stepping into a snake park as the council endorsed her secondment during a tense council meeting yesterday. Sihunu, the acting deputy director-general of the...
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Unemployment stranglehold tightening in Bay
The unemployment rate in Nelson Mandela Bay climbed to 29.8% in the first quarter of 2026, with the metro also recording the sharpest year-onyear increase in joblessness among SA’s metros. The Bay’s unemployment rate rose by 7.5 percentage points from...
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Damaging winds add insult to injury
While the ground was still waterlogged from days of heavy rain, strong winds tore through parts of Nelson Mandela Bay and the Garden Route yesterday, uprooting trees, blocking key roads and ripping roofs from buildings. The latest bout of severe...
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Dams are full, but ‘we still need better governance’
If we want to protect the bountiful new water supply filling Nelson Mandela Bay dams and avoid sliding back into a drought crisis in two years’ time, an improvement in governance is non-negotiable. That is the word from experienced water engineer and...
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FLOODING MISERY: ‘We can’t lose what little we have left!’
Nelson Mandela Bay’s flood disaster escalated dramatically on its second day of relentless rainfall, with rising water levels displacing families and submerging homes — yet many refused to evacuate over fears of looting. Despite the municipality...
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Drama amid the deluge
Chaos unfolded across the metro and much of the province yesterday as an overnight storm displaced residents, flooded homes and even tore a swimming pool from its foundation, underscoring the sheer force of the weather. With Nelson Mandela Bay schools...
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Heartfelt tributes for coffee shop owner after freak accident
Flowers were laid on the deck of a popular Gqeberha coffee shop yesterday as grief-stricken patrons returned to the scene of a freak accident in which the owner was killed when a generator caught fire. The shock incident at Indulge Coffee Shop on...
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FATAL CRASH
Distraught family members stood behind the tape cordoning off the scene as emergency workers attended to the horrific wreck of an accident in which eight people were killed and multiple others injured yesterday. Police are investigating a case of...
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BEACHES RED-FLAGGED
Nelson Mandela Bay’s prized Blue Flag beaches are under threat, with a municipal report warning that safety and security failures could ultimately cost the metro its internationally recognised status at key coastal sites. Losing a Blue Flag status...
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Nqwazi vows to return to City Hall today
Arguing that her suspension has become unlawful after two years without a formal hearing having begun, Nelson Mandela Bay city manager Noxolo Nqwazi intends to return to work today, the second time she has invoked a delay to reclaim her post. Nqwazi...
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What Krisley Dirker’s life could have been
In a powerful and haunting moment in the Gqeberha high court, the state presented an AI-generated image of what Krisley Dirker might have looked like today had she not died after being beaten by her stepfather as a toddler. The unconventional step...
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Frustration and fears over ballooning municipal arrears
Overdue municipal arrears in Nelson Mandela Bay have surged to R22.6bn, with the metro’s staff owing R6.77m for rates and services. This has prompted the municipality to start salary deductions and formal repayment arrangements with staff. The...
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Major Gqeberha reservoir’s little room of horrors
The scourge of vandalism has reared its ugly head at the critical Mount Road Reservoir, with a disgusting discovery in a small room on the premises raising serious concerns. With evidence of vagrants living at the facility — and engaging in unhygienic...
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Slammed prosecutor from Omotoso trial gets another major job
Despite being replaced as prosecutor in two high-profile cases amid a judicial finding of unethical conduct, advocate Nceba Ntelwa has resurfaced at the centre of another major case — this time as part of a specialised task team handling matters...
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ARTS FEST: Makhanda in dire straits, but show must go on
Despite the crumbling infrastructure and never-ending water woes in Makhanda, the National Arts Festival (NAF) will go ahead in June. Organisers say though they have noted the multiple issues in the small city, these will not affect the popular...
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‘We are serving a life sentence without Jayde’
On the 11th anniversary of Jayde Panayiotou’s murder, her family are once again being forced to relive their loss as they gear up to oppose parole for one of the men behind her killing. Having served eight years of his 15-year prison sentence for...
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Vulnerable children at risk of being turned away
A Gqeberha-based child protection organisation says it is being forced to turn away vulnerable children, including abuse victims, because it has run out of space, highlighting a growing crisis in the city’s care system. The Zanethemba Charity...
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Gqeberha rolls out red carpet for Ironman
The Gqeberha esplanade was packed with thousands of athletes and supporters as they lined the street to experience one of the continent’s most gruelling endurance races, the 2026 Isuzu Ironman African Championship. Nelson Mandela Bay was out in its...
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‘We don’t feel valued at Aspen’
About 150 jobs are at risk at the Gqeberha facility of Aspen Pharmacare’s South African Operations, a situation that has created anxiety among workers who say repeated retrenchments have pushed morale to an all-time low and left them feeling...
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Stage set for Malema’s big day
The EFF has conceded that the ongoing firearm-related case against its leader, Julius Malema, could disrupt the party’s preparations for this year’s local government elections, regardless of the outcome of the court process. Party secretary-general...
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Perly poachers’ ‘military-style’ takeover
Seaview and Kini Bay residents were on high alert yesterday waiting for another invasion of perlemoen poachers after the mayhem from the day before. Taking advantage of flat, crystal clear seas, the poachers have been arriving by the bakkie load each...
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Claws out as saga between metro, SPCA rages on
In the latest development in an escalating cat-and-dog fight, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has signalled it is going the legal route to evict the Uitenhage SPCA, but lawyers for the animal welfare organisation are having none of it. Bay public...
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Dogfight brews over new SPCA property
A new property which was hoped would secure the future of the Uitenhage SPCA, thanks to a R2.7m lifeline, has instead been at the centre of a fierce standoff in the farming community of Kruisrivier, where angry neighbours arrived at the site yesterday...
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