Potholes are taking over the streets of Ekurhuleni.
“Despite numerous requests by councillors to have the potholes repaired, the metro’s roads and storm water department cannot appoint contractors because almost all of their senior staff have been suspended pending disciplinary action,” said Neil Campbell MPL, DA Gauteng shadow MEC for roads and transport.
“Coupled with this, the department claims that bitumen is unobtainable.”
Campbell added that as a result, cold asphalt is being used to ‘repair’ the few potholes that do get attention.
“Due to the rapidly increasing number of claims for damages to tyres and rims, the metro, in an attempt to shirk its responsibility, now claims it cannot be held liable for damages unless the pothole has been reported.
“The metro’s attempt at escaping their duty of maintaining quality municipal roads is flawed in both law and logic,” Campbell said.
“With the drastic drop in oil prices, the metro must stop wasting public funds by using cold asphalt, and source hot-tar to repair potholes.”
He also said that the municipality must finalise the outstanding disciplinary cases against its senior staff.
“Failure to do so will perpetuate the pothole crisis, resulting in more justifiable claims against the metro by motorists.
“The DA urges motorists whose vehicles are damaged by potholes to report the incident to the SAPS on either a collision report or an occurrence book entry.
“The case number should be used in communication with the metro,” Campbell said.
“Motorists should photograph the damage on scenes and if possible, receive testimony from witnesses.
“The DA will continue to put pressure on the metro to get its house in order to ensure that this pothole crisis is resolved.”
The GCN approached the metro for comment on the pothole situation.
Spokesman for the metro Themba Gadebe said, “Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has since last year been engaging with a reputable private company regarding a partnership to address the challenge of potholes.
“The partnership will be announced very soon and work will begin in earnest to respond to the challenge of potholes.
“The municipality views the matter as serious and it is confident that the pending partnership will be effective to turn the situation around.”
Send us your pothole photos:
Send photos of potholes in your area of Germiston to germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za
Photos should be sent as separate jpg attachments at least 500KB in size.
Please include your full name, contact details and the physical address of the pothole in the main body of the email.
