City’s industrial hub says pleas fall on deaf ears
Describing the state of Alrode South as having degraded over the years, businesses from the metro’s industrial hub say their appeals and concerns are falling on deaf ears.
Service delivery is poor in all areas of Alberton, but Alrode South is the worst affected in terms of prolonged power outages, inconsistent refuse collection and ever-widening potholes.
This is according to Alrode South business owners who say they bear the brunt of the lack of service delivery and attribute the power outages, inconsistent refuse collection and potholes to the “degrading” state of Alrode South.
Mushrooming informal traders in the area are also attributed to the deteriorating state of the industrial hub.
Cathy Austen of Creamers Lubrication Products (Pumprite Brand) said that a few months ago, she had to pay about R6 000 to get a private company to cut lawns and long grass.
“The refuse collection is not consistent. Load-shedding is terrible, our gross profit is down, and we can only attribute it to the long hours of load-shedding when we cannot produce. And it’s not that we don’t lodge calls. I have lodged many queries,” she explained.
Alec Tsombanakis from Propshart City reiterated: “We started fixing our potholes because the roads were getting bad, and everyone thanked us. A week later, the town council came and dug up one of the potholes, put down tar, stamped it with their feet, left and never came back.”
Adjustment budget by the council
The City of Ekurhuleni has assured it will conduct critical maintenance on identified industrial and main roads after the recent passing of the adjustment budget by the council.
Zweli Dlamini, the city’s spokesperson, said now that the adjustment budget was approved, they would start to have more developments in their projects.
The adjustment budget has availed an additional R2.9m for road rehabilitation until the end of June. The maintenance of the main and industrial roads started in earnest this month and will remain intense until the end of the financial year in June.
The city stated that the budget would be dedicated to road maintenance as identified by the city, and part of it would also go to ad-hoc road-related issues reported by the public through the city’s call centre and digital media platforms.
Ward 94 Clr Samantha Nair said: “When issues are bought to my attention, I deal with them immediately.
Unfortunately, service delivery is not happening as fast as one would like. My commitment is to meet with businesses in the area and see how I can assist in solving issues.”
