The Endumeni Residents Association are looking for electricians and volunteer traffic officers to assist the Association to repair the long-time dysfunctional traffic lights at the Tri-Star intersection of Union, Tatham and Karel Landman Streets.
FC Bester, Association chairman, has set March 22 as the day when residents will final do what the Provincial Transport Department cannot or won’t,
“That busy intersection is unsafe because of the non-working lights… the situation has been like that for months. We are told by municipal officials that no one from Endumeni can repair the lights as it is a Provincial road and is their responsibility.
“But they can’t fix it. The contractor is probably incompetent and cannot care about Dundee. Well, have had enough of incompetence. Why should we accept these shoddy excuses? We pay our rates and have to face this… no, no – it is enough – stand up or stand down.”
Below is the full letter sent to Mr Bester to the Endumeni Municipality informing them of the plan:
Urgent repairs: traffic lights at the intersection of Karel Landman, Union and Tatham streets:
Acting Municipal Manager
Martin Hlangani
Endumeni Municipality
It is with the most extreme urgency that we are addressing this letter to you for your urgent attention.
You should be aware that the traffic lights at the above mentioned intersection has been out of order for some time now. All traffic are now expected to treat this intersection as a 4-way stop. We are aware that this section of Karel Landman Street falls under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Administration and not the Endumeni Municipality. At the last Ward 2 Committee meeting, held on Thursday, 5 March 2015, we tabled our concerns at the meeting. You are most welcome to contact Councilor Raubenheimer in this regard.
At the meeting we proposed that the Endumeni Municipality take the responsibility and repair the traffic lights. It was mentioned at the meeting that the municipality’s officials will not be able to address this matter because of the Provincial Administrations jurisdiction of the provincial road. This view is totally unacceptable for the residents of Endumeni.
We have to bring it to your attention that many road users are not obeying the so-called 4-way stop. The reason can be that there are no indication, anywhere on Karel Landman Street, that there is a 4 way stop ahead. We are also of the opinion that the placement of such a sign will not have any effect on many road users and the only solution is to have the traffic lights fixed by the officials of the Endumeni Municipality.
The Residents Association is of the opinion that urgent action should now be taken to avoid a fatal accident to occur at this specific intersection.
We are now considering to take control of the traffic lights and to appoint and make use of local qualified residents to repair the traffic lights for the account of the Endumeni Municipality. We also reserve the right to make use of the qualified electricians, as well as the senior traffic officials of the Endumeni Municipality, to oversee and to assist us in this urgent matter. The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal is on record that road safety is at this stage a priority in the province and that accidents must be prevented.
Furthermore, we must also bring it to your attention that we as residents of Endumeni has the constitutional right for a safe environment.
The question is whether you as Municipal Manager and as Accounting Officer, are going to support us in this regard or are you and Council going to wait for a horrific accident to take place, before taking action.
In view of the above, we now call on you to ensure that this matter is addressed urgently and that you will ensure that the traffic lights are in working order by no later than Wednesday, 11 March 2015. Should you fail to adhere to this reasonable request and to ensure the safety of the road users and the residents of Endumeni, we will embark on the following:
1. The Residents Association will approach and appoint qualified electricians and traffic officials to repair the non-working traffic lights on Sunday morning, 22 March 2015.
2. We will also ensure that those appointed by us, will have legal representation, should the Municipality decide to obstruct or prosecute such representatives or residents.
We trust that you will give this matter your urgent attention and await your reply before the end of business today, by return email, please.
FC Bester
Endumeni Residents Association.
