Johannesburg – Service delivery protests in Missionvale, Port Elizabeth, and Cookhouse, near Cradock, were under control on Friday afternoon, Eastern Cape police said.

“Earlier this morning [residents] were throwing stones at police,” said police spokesperson Alwin Labans said.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse them.

“The situation is under control,” he said around 15:00.

They burnt tyres and blocked roads to express their dissatisfaction with the rate of housing delivery and other services.

No one had been arrested, Labans said.

In a separate protest, residents of Cookhouse set a municipal building alight on Thursday around 21:00, said spokesperson Stefanie Smith.

“About… 600 dissatisfied community members took to the streets and started stoning the municipality building to express their alleged dissatisfaction [with municipal services].”

The protesters later set the building alight, set fire to a tractor tyre under a railway bridge on the R63, which disrupted traffic, and stoned a police car.

“Today everything is under control. Local police are monitoring the situation,” Smith said.

A case of public violence was being investigated, but no one had been arrested.

– SAPA