Angry residents of the Macambini community on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast "became so violent" in a land action protest on Thursday that some stood on top of bridges and began throwing stones at motorists travelling beneath, police said.

Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said the crowd of 3000, who set up protests at several bridges along the N2 freeway, "were very, very violent."

No were injuries reported.

The community began protesting at 7am on Thursday and were still busy by 1pm.

Mdunge said three protestors had been arrested for public violence.

"They were burning tyres, blockaded the freeway, and some even stood on top of bridges and began throwing stones at cars travelling on the freeway."

Mdunge said police initially used pepper spray to try to disperse the crowd, but when it failed, police used rubber bullets.

"The majority of the crowd then dispersed but began regrouping a while later. They are still there now," he said.

Mdunge said there were about 1500 protestors at Bridge 9, while others protested at various other bridges.

At the end of November, the Macambini community threatened rolling mass action and the closure of national roads between Durban and Richards Bay if the multi-billion rand AmaZulu World Project went ahead.

In a memorandum handed over to the office of Premier S'bu Ndebele, the community labelled him a thief saying "the Premier is trying to steal the land belonging to the people of Macambini and sell it to the Dubai people for his own benefit".

Two Dubai-based companies want to build massive projects on the 16 500ha land, which would result in 8500 families being uprooted from their ancestral land.

Earlier this year, the provincial government signed an agreement with Ruwaad Holdings to give impetus to the R44-billion project, which would include Africa's first internationally branded entertainment theme park, a sports village, a shopping centre, and a dedicated education and health village.

This would be situated alongside resorts, hotels, spas, a marina, community facilities, and nature reserves.

In its ultimatum last week, the Macambini community said that if Ndebele did not withdraw from the project by 3 December, the community would take rolling mass action in the entire North Coast area and that there would be a "total closure of the N2... and R102 between Durban and Richards Bay".

Sapa