EDITOR – The letter published in your April 15 edition, Resident makes call for boycott on rates and taxes, has reference.
While I fully agree with the writer about the shocking state of the roads due to a lack of ongoing maintenance, the writer refers to “pedestrians who persistently walk on the roads” and “we, as drivers, cannot use the pavements to drive on so, please, pedestrians use the pavements, which are easily accessible to you”.
I recently witnessed a partially sighted man using his white cane attempting to cross Seventeenth Avenue to Central Avenue at the traffic light crossing.
Despite the fact that the pedestrian’s white cane was clearly visible, a vehicle driving up Central Avenue quickly nipped in front of this gentleman, avoiding his cane by millimetres, with the pedestrian almost stumbling.
I sat in my vehicle in a state of shock and watched this gentleman continue walking down Central Avenue on the tarred surface.
I just could not understand why he would choose to walk on the road, placing himself in danger of our many reckless drivers and potholes, rather than walk on the sidewalk provided.
During the course of the following weeks, I made a concerted effort look at the state of the sidewalks in our suburbs and I was astounded at the amount of unnecessary obstacles on our pathways.
Besides the hundreds of broken Ekurhuleni bins that are poorly situated and inadequately cemented onto the sidewalks, as well as the numerous garbage bags that get dumped surrounding the bins for days on end, I am appalled by the lack of rehabilitation of the sidewalks after service providers have dug them up to install or repair services.
There are far too many sidewalks with missing manhole covers and piles of earth and bricks that make our sidewalks hazardous, not only for disabled residents, but for all pedestrians.
After numerous enquiries I established that the partially sighted gentleman is well known in Edenvale and resides in the Edenglen area.
Mr Wayne Sandwell offers a pet care service to Edenvale residents and he walks daily from as far as Makro in Meadowdale to the Edenvale Hospital, mostly on the tarred roads rather than our shocking pavements.
The Ekurhuleni Metro is determined to build an Aerotropolis, but they cannot manage basic service delivery for its ratepayers.
Rehabilitation and maintenance is practically non-existent in our town and we should all be picketing at the council offices, demanding that the council “walk the talk” and do their jobs efficiently.
I would like to remind the Ekurhuleni Council and the Edenvale Municipality that at the time of the merging of the municipalities, our mayor assured residents that there would be upliftment for all, but it appears that the intention is to drop standards to previously disadvantaged areas while continuing to rake in our hard-earned rates and taxes.
SHARON LENDRUM-FRITTELLI,
HURLUVALE RESIDENT.
EDITOR’S COMMENT – A request for comment was sent to the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s (EMM) spokesperson, Mr Themba Gadebe, on April 29 with a request for comment by April 30 at 11am. At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
