The Sunninghill Community Ratepayers Association recently resolved to hire a private contractor to fill up notorious potholes on the streets of a busy neighbourhood with a high traffic volume.
Chairperson of the association, Linda Gildenhuys said they hired a private contractor after failed attempts to get response from the City’s utility responsible for municipal road maintenance, Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA).
“Our office reported these potholes to the JRA and chased all the reference numbers, however, it takes so long to have them repaired and potholes have become dangerous. JRA, has to our knowledge, not filled any potholes in Sunninghill since 2019. As a ratepayers association, we’ve decided to hire a contractor to come and fill these dangerous potholes. It has indeed cost us as residents a large amount of money and we were only able to take on the serious ones,” she said
Gildenhuys added that Sunninghill also had failing water infrastructure. “Water pipes that have not been maintained for years and pipes that are just very old. This has resulted over the past two or three years in many burst water pipes. As the road infrastructure is also very old, with roads in desperate need of being resurfaced, every time we have these burst water pipes, potholes develop.”
She said driving at night in the neighbourhood had become a nightmare. “Following recent heavy rain, we have seen huge potholes develop once again. Sunninghill is a large area with a high volume of traffic and residents. There were many residents who had suffered damage to their vehicles due to their tyres bursting and rims being damaged. Burst tyres cause motor vehicle accidents as well. Our residents’ lives were in danger, especially at night when you can’t see the potholes.”
The Fourways Review reached out to Johannesburg Roads Agency for comment, however, the agency had not responded at the time of sending to press.
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