While out driving on the city’s roads motorists have to be extremely careful.
They need to obey the rules of the road and make sure others are not driving negligently while trying to avoid the many potholes littering the city’s streets.
Many motorists have reported the problem of potholes to the Germiston City News.
Kobus Swanepoel from Stalcor reported a huge pothole at the corner of Linton Jones and Brammer streets, in Industries East, to the metro, recently.
He told the City News that the hole was so huge that a 10-ton truck got stuck in the pothole and had to be pulled out, using a forklift.
“The metro eventually came out last week and dumped sand into the hole, and then used a roller to go over it and compact it, but it is not going to last,” Swanepoel said.
“This looks like only a very short-term solution.
“When it rains the hole will open again.”
In comment received from the metro about the pothole, the City News was told that the metro’s roads department would attend to the matter by February 4.
But the pothole has not been fixed properly; it has merely been filled in.
Danny Fourie sent the City News two photos of potholes in his immediate vicinity.
Residents in the Primrose area (Wannenberghoogte and Sunnyridge) need to drive carefully to avoid the ever increasing number of potholes in the suburbs.
Another area battling the pothole plague is Castleview.
Barry Taylor told the newspaper that he had reported the potholes on the metro’s website a number of times since October, but, to date, nothing had been done about the holes in the area.
Tania Campbell, ward councillor for Ward 21, said that potholes in the metro have ballooned out of control since last year.
“The DA believes that there is a court interdict which prevents the metro from awarding any tenders to companies to repair roads in the metro, and potholes which were reported six months ago are still affecting large areas of Germiston,” she explained.
“Ordinary wear and tear on the roads is not being repaired but, what is worse, is that when the metro does maintenance on underground pipes the road is dug up and not replaced,” Campbell said.
“On Pine Road, in Marlands, the hole is so big that residents have planted a tree in it to make it visible to motorists.
“This has been a problem since October 2014; for almost four months these residents have had to navigate a danger on the roads and it is simply unacceptable.”
In the metro’s first council meeting for the year, last Thursday, the mayor, Mondli Gungubele, said, “I am pleased to announce that Bidvest Velocity, through its corporate social investment, has come on board to assist us in dealing with the pothole problem at no cost to the metro.
“The company started doing work late last year and will resume pothole repairs in February.”
He added that the metro’s roads and storm water department is compiling a plan in the meantime, to find a lasting solution to potholes.
“It must be clarified that the company’s involvement is, indeed, an augmentation of the metro’s own maintenance efforts as budgeted for in the 2014/2015 financial year,” he said.
Residents can send their pothole photos to germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za
The photos must be sent as separate jpg attachments (at least 500KB in size).
Please include the street name and area where the photo was taken in the main body of your email.
