Feisty tannies take on truckers

Using nothing but iron will and some harsh language, a group of women in Nelson Mandela Bay are trying to stop hundreds of truck drivers who are destroying a historic bridge. By Estelle Ellis

- By Estelle Ellis

“I won't lie,” says Francis Jeffrey. “I am 70 and I am frustrated. It gets rough out here some days. So the other day I thought, I have seven dogs. If I pick up all their poo we can make a lekker dog poo Slush Puppie.

“I had a meeting with my group and said, 'You put it in a bag and then you throw it at the drivers.' But they are more decent than I am, so they haven't said yes yet. I am the type of person who will hit a truck driver in the face with a brick. I am that frustrated that I now want to throw dog shit at people.”

A year ago on 18 October, Jeffrey, Linda Meades, Francis Nkaki and Eileen Leander launched a second petition to force the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality to take action to repair and protect the historic Wylde Bridge over the Swartkops River. The bridge, also known as the "Smartie bridge" for its colourful paint, was built in 1879 and is the oldest bridge in the metro.

The formidable Jeffrey, a resident of Swartkops in Gqeberha for 25 years who has zero tolerance for shenanigans of any sort, first sent a petition a few years ago asking for the bridge to be protected. But that one, she says, was chucked into a drawer somewhere and never saw the light of day again.

For the second one, her group decided to exclude politicians so that it can be put into action regardless of who is in charge of the metro. The municipality, governed by a coalition, has had 18 city managers and acting city managers in the past 10 years and four mayors in four years.

The bridge was fixed in 2018, but contractors failed to return the height restrictors that prevented trucks heavier than five tonnes from crossing it.