{"id":74988,"date":"2017-11-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74988\/komati-inwoners-gyselaar-gehou\/"},"modified":"2017-11-07T16:05:23","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T14:05:23","slug":"komati-inwoners-gyselaar-gehou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/news-headlines\/2017\/11\/07\/komati-inwoners-gyselaar-gehou\/","title":{"rendered":"Komati residents held hostage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Al three of the entrances to the residential area were\u00a0blocked with burning rubble and concrete blocks on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-75018\" src=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/Komati2-520x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/Komati2-520x400.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/Komati2-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On Monday, a large portion of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eskom.co.za\/sites\/heritage\/Pages\/KOMATIPOWERSTATION.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">residential area<\/a> saw their garbage bags torn open and the contents thereof strewn in the streets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/53500\/municipal-workers-remain-on-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\">Municipal workers remain on strike<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The situation repeated itself on Tuesday morning. Striking workers danced and sang at the blocked entrances to the small town.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-75019\" src=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/komati4-520x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"520\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/komati4-520x400.jpg 520w, https:\/\/dwu32cgxelq1c.cloudfront.net\/local_newspapers\/sites\/92\/2017\/11\/komati4-300x231.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither the police nor the municipality are doing anything to ensure our safety. People were advised to\u00a0avoid going outside and to lock their gates and stay indoors,\u201d a resident confirmed to <a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>www.mobserver.co.za.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Other news:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74964\/body-found-next-to-river-with-arm-torn-off\/\" target=\"_blank\">(Graphic content) Body found next to river with arm torn off<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74930\/weather-for-the-week-7\/\" target=\"_blank\">Weather for the week<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mobserver.co.za\/74784\/supersport-united-team-stuck-n4-convoy-crash\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Super Sport United team stuck on N4 after convoy crash<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Want breaking news on the go?<\/h3>\n<p>Add us on WhatsApp. Save the number 072 248 3855 on your phone and send a WhatsApp message with the words \u201cAdd me\u201d to receive news broadcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Residents of Komati say that they are &#8220;being held hostage&#8221; by striking municipal workers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":74989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Gerhard Rheeder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[8875,8876,8873,8874,21966,2890,2973,972,2035,4715],"class_list":["post-74988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines","tag-entrances-blocked","tag-held-hostage","tag-komati","tag-komati-town","tag-middelburg","tag-municipal-strike","tag-municipality","tag-police","tag-strike","tag-witbank"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"tag_labels":["entrances blocked","held hostage","komati","komati town","middelburg","municipal strike","municipality","police","strike","Witbank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}