JRA will be returning to a full staff complement to attend to service delivery issues.
Ward councillors across Region B have been left with very few answers to give their residents and motorists when it came to concerns of reinstatements and potholes filling in their areas.
For weeks such matters have been reported to ward councillors and the Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA), although some had been attended, a majority of cases remained unresolved.
MMC for Transport Funzela Ngobeni announced road-related service delivery is set for a major boost across Johannesburg as JRA depot workers will return to work on a full-time basis from February 16. He stated due to the roads agency not being declared an essential service at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency has not been able to run at 100% capacity, thus affecting service delivery. This is expected to change following the directive issued by the City of Johannesburg’s acting city manager Floyd Brink that such entities have all their workers reporting for duty.
Ngobeni said, “On the employee front, for almost two years, the entity has been forced to operate with two-thirds of its usual workforce of general workers at any given time. I, therefore, welcome the decision to issue a directive instructing all JRA employees, especially general workers normally stationed at the City’s depots, to return to work on a full-time basis with immediate effect.”
Prior to the directive, JRA was unable to produce asphalt to carry out crucial repairs of potholes and road resurfacing due to employees working on a rotational basis. The MMC will now shift its focus and energy to rolling out the A Re Sebetseng region-by-region service delivery blitz campaigns and stated the additional manpower will ensure that service requests logged by residents will be addressed quicker than before.
JRA aims to address the backlog of potholes and other road defects around Johannesburg over the next few weeks. This includes installing and repairing deep patching, faulty or vandalised traffic signals, road markings, blocked kerb inlets, potholes and guardrails.
Residents and motorists have been encouraged to report matters to the JRA. To report road defects, go to www.jra.za, Twitter: @Myjra, Facebook: Johannesburg Road Agency, email: hotline@jra.org.za or JRA Find&Fix mobile app.
