(Seychelles News Agency) - About 20 residents and business owners, who were affected by the major explosion in Seychelles that took place on December 7, 2023, at the Civil Construction Company Limited (CCCL) quarrying headquarters at Providence, took to the streets on Saturday morning to protest what they describe as a lack of accountability on the part of the CCCL.

According to statistics the government authorities provided in February this year, 531 houses were affected by the blast of a CCCL explosives store among which 354 are privately owned and 177 are managed by the state-owned Property Management Company (PMC). Furthermore, the majority of businesses of the Providence Industrial Estate were damaged.

The government provided financial aid, for example, the Agency for Social Protection (ASP) paid households a sum of SCR25,000 ($1871.35) each for repairs of damaged houses, while for those houses that need to be demolished, the government put aside SCR1 million ($75,000) per house for people to rebuild their houses. A few households had insurance payouts. 

However, CCCL has not yet been held accountable for this disaster and only recently the official policy inquiry report into the incident was provided to the Attorney General's Office, to decide on how to respond further on behalf of the state and residents. The government said the report will not be made public. 

A peaceful protest 

The peaceful protest was held near a bus stop on the opposite side of the CCCL site. The protesters’ point of contention was the way that the situation was being handled. About nine months later, these residents felt that not enough had been done. 

Melissa, a resident of Cascade said, “In my case, my mother chose not to ask for assistance. However, I’m here today to support the others who have been affected. It’s not right. Some of them still have not been helped.” 

A business owner, Pascal Leonnel, said “I am here to support the residents of Petit Paris and Cascade. They said they’ve assisted, but you can go around in the area and see how many people are still struggling to fix their house, me included. Every day I talk to many people in the same situation. They are afraid to speak.” 

Leonnel further added that while they received some funds for repair, it was not enough. “We discover new issues during reconstruction, even if a contractor assessed the damage. New cracks in the walls, tiles cracking.” 

Protesters ask CCCL to be accountable (Seychelles News Agency) Photo License: All Rights Reserved

Samia Volcy, a resident of Petit Paris, expressed her dissatisfaction stating, “For eight months, my five kids and I have been sleeping among plywood. We are not here for political reasons; we simply want justice. Everywhere we go, we are dismissed, and nobody will speak or listen to us. We are frustrated. We will be here every Saturday until a solution is found.” 

Another business owner, Petrina Labonte, said “My business is here. I was told that I wouldn’t get assistance for the damage to my business. I wasn’t working for three months because of this incident. I was only given assistance for my house and my mother’s house. They gave me only SCR 700,000 ($49,000). This is not enough to fix everything. We are not asking for money out of nowhere, we want to be able to get back to how our lives were.”   

Another resident, Julianna Jules, put forward her grievances by explaining that “We were fine. Now we have to deal with dust, and rainwater leaking inside all the time. We have our rights. A lot of people want to come forward, but they are afraid of repercussions.” 

These residents started protesting last week, however at the time they were asked to leave by the Seychelles Police. For their protest this week, they sought the assistance of newspaper editor and social activist, Ralph Volcere.  

Present at the protest, Volcere explained that “last week they had not given proper notice, that is why the police asked them to leave. They asked for my help, so I informed the Commissioner of Police, five days in advance, of their intent to protest peacefully in accordance with the law.” 

Volcere added that they had received a reply from the police recommending that they have the protest at the Cascade District Administration office instead. However, the residents were against this stating that it is the CCCL that they have an issue with not the District Administration. Therefore, the protestors chose to hold the protest near the CCCL. 

At several instances during the protest today, officers from the police force did show up to speak to the protestors. Interceding on their part, Volcere explained that they had followed all procedures according to the law; that they would protest peacefully until noon and that they would not be moving until then. Each time the officers emphasised that they should remain peaceful and then left. 

After the protest ended, the residents vowed to keep protesting every week until their voices were heard.