Fishing in a pothole: Sad state of Howick’s roads

After 18 months of pleading with the uMngeni Municipality and the KwaZulu-Natal department of transport to improve the bad conditions of a road outside Howick in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, the Curry’s Post Conservancy came up with a fun way to send a strong message to their local government.

On Saturday, the organisation hosted the first ever pothole fishing competition to raise awareness on the unbearable pothole situation in the area where more than 100 community members came out to support the initiative.

In hilarious pictures on social media, residents are seen dressed in costumes and pretending to fish, while some share a laugh while “hanging out” by the potholes.

One participant, Jen Miller, thanked the organisers on Facebook and applauded them for raising awareness and drawing attention to the issue in such a funny way.

“This morning’s tongue-in-cheek , fishing-rod-in-pothole competition on the Curry’s Post Road was a sheer delight! Community folks brought their good humour, great costumes and even glorious bagpipes to highlight the costly plight of regular road users on this treacherous Midlands stretch,” said Miller.

Curry’s Post Conservancy chair Wendy Channing said members of the organisation spent hours surveying and logging every pothole to send to the municipality last year.

“After a major cycling accident we submitted our findings to the municipality to fix the potholes,” said Channing.

“We were told not to fix the potholes ourselves because if anything happened we would be held liable, so we thought what better way to draw attention to the matter than hosting the competition.”

Channing explained that they had submitted countless documents to the uMngeni Municipality to fix the potholes and they haven’t received any response. However, they are now considering legal action.

According to Kemsely Wood, a volunteer at the organisation, residents, motorists and business owners have been asking the municipality to fill in potholes for months, without success.

“We really wanted to highlight the condition of the road, if people can go fishing in a pothole then it is no longer a pothole, but a lake,” said Wood.

uMngeni municipal spokesperson Thando Mgaga said an assessment of priority pothole repairs is in place and phase one of pothole repairs has started.

“Due to rains experienced, work was delayed. After the rains, subsided work has been ongoing on the same road,” said Mgaga in a statement.

“The council approved additional funding for further pothole repairs, including phase two of pothole repairs on the same road during the tabling of its adjustment budget on 24 February.”

Mgaga said that in November and December last year the municipality repaired about 6 500m2 of potholes.

The municipality has also allocated funds to resurface 3.5km of road through its adjustment budget amid the challenges that led to the downward adjustment of the original budget adopted last June.

reitumetsem@citizen.co.za

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