EDITOR – It has been over a month if not more since I reported the ongoing deterioration of roads and blocked stormwater drains to the City of Ekurhuleni.
I got a reference number sent to my phone no less than 10 times.
Vusi from the council came to see the damage and said someone will attend to it, yet still we wait as nothing gets done.
We had a blocked sewer which they duly came and opened up.
Rags and the like were pulled out to get the sewer running again.
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When I asked who is meant to fix damaged manhole covers, etc., all I got was a shrug of the shoulders.
Then there are roads that were resurfaced which did not need it (probably a councillor lives in that road).
Just driving out to get materials to repair my house I travelled on some of the roads that carry heavy traffic every day and these are showing signs of more and more potholes.
It’s no fun any more and is even worse if you ride a motorcycle.
I have watched a lot of YouTube videos where drivers in other countries heed the rules of the road.
In South Africa, I see it every day: people who blatantly ignore stop signs and drive straight on in turning lanes, not to mention the number of drivers who skip red traffic lights.
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They laud the drivers for the lower number of deaths on our roads over Easter.
The truth of the matter is it is now so expensive to fill your petrol tank that half the people couldn’t go away, wonder of wonders.
There never seems to be anything we can truly be happy about or praise as everything seems to overflow because all the drains are blocked.
Willy Pittner.
EDITOR’S COMMENT – Ward 18 Clr, Heather Hart commented as follows:
Yes, service delivery is just collapsing everywhere and, unfortunately, I see no chance of it getting better unless there is a change of government.
Roads depot has no funds at the moment for fixing potholes, but one wonders why they cannot attend to the blocked/damaged stormwater drains instead.
Now water and sanitation have suspended the replacement/repair of those raised manholes due to lack of funds.
We have appointed contractors to resurface a few roads and then do patching at what I see at really concerning costs but always in the last few months of the financial year, meaning everyone has to rush everything and no jobs are done properly, or contractors are recalled to make good.
And now even our street light team, which used to be quite efficient, seems to be ignoring my escalations.
In Edenvale I am not aware of any roads resurfaced where a councillor lives, although the road that I live on is going to be resurfaced. There was one entry for Marcel, which became Mare, and you are right, a perfectly good road was resurfaced.
Our streets are littered with rubbish, stones and sand, people dump what they don’t want wherever they want, water leaks are badly rehabilitated, when new water meters are installed they rival the Leaning tower of Pisa, and yes, our once wonderful town is now becoming like all the rest.
Unfortunately, there is very little I or my colleagues can do about it.
Only the ballot box can bring the change needed.
A request for comment was sent to the City of Ekurhuleni on April 25 requesting comment by April 26.
At the time of going to print no comment had been received.
