- Roads in Durban have been reopened following protest action attempts.
- A social media poster under the banner of several political parties claimed there would be a shutdown on Monday.
- A municipal electricity department is temporarily closed after it was vandalised on Sunday.
Alpine Road and Quarry Road East in Springfield Park have been reopened following protest action attempts, authorities confirmed on Monday.
Members of the eThekwini Metro police and the South African Defence Force (SANDF) are on high alert to monitor the situation after protest action was reported in Springfield Park on Monday morning.
"Our members and the SANDF were deployed to the area and we found that there were two protest actions, one near an informal settlement on Alpine Road and Quarry Road East this morning," said Metro police spokesperson Parboo Sewpersad.
Durban - Umgeni Road (Update): due to earlier #Protesting - road cleansing underway pic.twitter.com/V2QphawxH2
— Rob Beezy (@TrafficSA) August 23, 2021
The roads were blocked with rocks and debris but had since been cleared, he said. No further incidents of protest action have been reported.
Meanwhile, the eThekwini Municipality's Electricity Department advised customers in Ntuzuma and KwaMashu that Bester Customer Service Centre is temporarily closed after being vandalised on Sunday night.
"While the municipality thoroughly investigates the matter, customers are urged to use our E-services for queries or alternatively visit other customer service centres," the municipality said.
Some political parties in KwaZulu-Natal have distanced themselves from the planned civil unrest expected to have taken place on Monday.
On Sunday, the ANC said it was saddened by the misuse of their logo in the planned unrest and, "... condemned the behaviour in [the] strongest terms".
"The ANC is not aware nor has it planned any unrest. We are serious aggrieved by the fact that people have the audacity to drag the logo of the liberation movement into a chaotic conduct that has the potential of perpetuating and wreaking havoc in the province," provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) also distanced itself from the protest, adding that the use of its logo in the poster was done illegally.
"We must state henceforth and categorically that the use of our logo in such illicit and dangerous campaigns has been done so illegally and we wish to distance the SACP and all other progressive forces of the left from this banner and its intended and allied outcomes," SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu said.
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Mthembu added the SACP also took umbrage with the insinuation by the digital banner that it wants the President of the ANC to fall.
"This was and is never an SACP position... to interfere in the affairs of its alliance partners. President [Cyril] Ramaphosa as the President of the ANC still enjoys the support of the SACP and its structures," he added.