Traffic lights: Whose responsibility is it anyway?

Out-of-order traffic lights at the intersection of Rifle Range Road and Kliprivier Drive are a nuisance to motorists.

What adds to the frustration is the lack of responsibility from the authorities who are supposed to remedy the situation. Tiaan de Wet, a local business owner, said the traffic lights at this specific intersection have been out of order for two years if not more.

“The problem is that this is a very busy intersection. It is located just off the highway. There are two schools close to this intersection, a residential and also an industrial area. You can imagine that a lot of traffic goes through this intersection.

“This outage causes severe frustration for business owners as well as the residents as it adds a lot of time to one’s journey. This is also causing accidents as people simply do not treat the intersection as a four-way stop,” he said.

He said there have been attempts to contact all relevant people including local councillor Rashieda Landis, Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) and Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport, however, no positive results have been achieved.

About 300m from the above intersection there is another intersection (where motorists can get off from the highway onto Kliprivier Drive). At this intersection, there is literary one traffic light standing and it is not working.

“I have personally reported this issue to our ward councilor Rashieda Landis and begged for assistance on several occasions. From her, I have heard that the matter has been reported, yet nothing happens.

“At a stage, she blamed theft for the outage but I argued this as there are four similar intersections within 100m from this intersection with traffic lights which are in working order, so theft cannot be a problem.

“I have heard that equipment has been ordered, but this is months or even a year ago so it’s possibly not the truth. I have heard blame-shifting; one says it’s not their responsibility but the responsibility of the other and the other says the same.

“I have reported the issue at JRA and they responded by saying the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport is responsible. I contacted them several times. Every time they reply by saying teams have been dispatched to conduct necessary maintenance, awaiting updates from the maintenance/repair teams, but nothing happens,” explained De Wet.

De Wet has two reference numbers from the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport. He reported the matter in April and May this year.

Rashieda said, “Our stakeholders reported this and yet again now months later, no response.”

The Southern Courier contacted the department for a response, going to print, but no response was forthcoming.