A year on, road signs still inaccurate

MORE than a year later, the misspelt road names in Northdene still remain unattended to despite various attempts by concerned residents to have them changed. Writz Road and Oliver Leese Road remain Wiritz Road, Oliver Less and Oliver Lees respectively.

In an interview with Queenburgh News, the eThekwini Municipality’s Head of Communication, Tozi Mthethwa, instilled confidence of rectification to the residents of Northdene and those affected by the inaccurate road signs.

“The eThekwini Municipality is in the process of rectifying the street names that were spelt incorrectly. The new process entails appointing a contractor to attend to the name changes and undertake general maintenance work. We apologise to residents for the inconvenience caused,” said Mthethwa.

Sunil Juggan, a resident in the area, condemned the mishap, questioning the quality control processes that the municipality follows when awarding tenders to the companies that erect these street signs.

“Surely someone should sign off on these street names before they are even printed and erected,” Juggan said. He was driving along Wirtz Road when he noticed that the then new street sign actually read Wiritz Road instead of Wirtz Road.

Hugh Acton, also a resident in Northdene, in an e-mail to Ward 63 Queensburgh councillor, André Micthell, highlighted the importance of having road names spelt accurately.

“With regard to the Wirtz Road spelling issue, after doing the research, I think it will be found that Mr Wirtz’ was a past resident of Queensburgh who contributed to the area through community or council work.

“We have a number of roads in Queensburgh that were named after civic-minded persons who made similar contributions to the community,” wrote Acton.

Although it still remains unclear as to when these road names will be changed, the residents of Northdene and those affected by the inaccurate road signs can rest assured that city officials are aware of the matter and have plans in place to correct them. Councilor Mitchell had not responded to our inquiry at the time of press.

Is there another spelling blunder that you might have spotted? Let us know by e-mailing the editor at robyns@dbn.caxton.co.za.