MACHADODORP – Who is waiting for whom? A stalemate exists between the Emakhazeni Local Municipality (ELM) and the local branch of AfriForum about the repair of the badly deteriorated Poll and Church streets. The condition of Poll, which runs past the local primary school, forces motorists to swerve off the street, putting the lives of pupils at risk, said Mr Delon Duvenhage, chairman of the local AfriForum branch. He alleged this week, that their attempts to assist the municipality to remedy this situation, were being ignored.
According to him they had requested from council, in November, a letter of permission to refurbish the road, along with the technical specifications. To date, the municipality has not responded with either. The request was sent, in writing, on November 1, saying that an engineer from the Beal group of companies would assess the work the next week, however, a letter stating that ELM accepts AfroForum’s involvement and assistance in this matter and authorization for Beal was required. “We must also have specifications from your engineering department, so I suggest that you bring someone along who will be able to assist you in that regard.” it read.
This was not the case, said Mr Fenter Khumalo, manager of public participation at the municipality. It is AfriForum which owes council a letter of what it requires to commence with the project. He told Lowvelder this week that any request to do work like this must be submitted in writing, after which council could offer its own staff to ensure public safety during the project.
Asked what their next step would be, Duvenhage said council was deliberately holding up the project, but the community will consider further action at the end of January. The provincial organiser for this civil rights organisation, Mr Ruan Lottering, stated the reason for council confusing the issue and ignoring the request was because it would reflect negatively on the ANC-ruled council, with elections looming, if AfriForum were to fix the town’s roads.
