Open letter to the Executive Mayor

Ward 102 Councillor David Potter writes;

You cycled… did you see what I saw?

When I heard you were cycling in the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge my heart warmed, a leader by example cycling with the 31 000 other cyclists in our amazing City.

I spent 4h30 minutes cycling the streets of Jozi. A lot of the time was spent reflecting on how the City is being run from a service delivery point of view.

I didn’t have to look far to see the short comings of the simplest of tasks that your administration and entities are failing to do.

My Ward:

Not for a lack of trying to have as many issues as possible logged either by myself, by many of the active resident’s associations, a full time Ward Inspector based in Region B and a Regional Office dedicated to service delivery, the majority of issues raised with the City just do not get done (or they do, but only after numerous requests or a tough love approach).

nWeeds along road gutters and in road islands: Jan Smuts Avenue and Bram Fischer Drive, Randburg.

nPotholes in centre of the route, with one needing someone to warn cyclists of its danger : Bram Fischer Drive, Randburg.

nStreet lights on during the day : Jan Smuts Avenue, Randburg.

nUPS cabinets broken open and batteries stolen : Bram Fischer Drive corner Bond Street, Randburg.

nRoads crumbling: Bram Fischer between Jan Smuts Avenue and Dover Road, Randburg.

nTraffic signal flashing after having no power for about 5 weeks : Jan Smuts Avenue, Randburg.

nIllegal land use: various places en route.

On approach to my Ward (102), within Region B:

nArmco barriers damaged and not repaired in an age: Jan Smuts Avenue, Saxonwold.

nReinstatements not being done within an adequate time frame often due to damaged water pipes (after the hundredth time): Jan Smuts Avenue, Dunkeld West.

nPavement excavation left for months: Jan Smuts Avenue, Hyde Park.

nSigns knocked over and a danger to pedestrians: Jan Smuts Avenue, Rosebank.

nWarning traffic lights installed and never commissioned: Jan Smuts Avenue, Craighall.

nCollapsed manhole cover: The Valley Road, Westcliff.

Issues along the route in general, across all Regions:

nRoad’s crumbling (especially in Region B) where little is being done to maintain what is left of the road. We are aware of the road resurfacing programme that JRA has embarked upon but in the meantime the roads cannot be left to crumble.

nIllegal dumping is rife (especially in Region F). Just a few km from the iconic Nelson Mandela bridge and the new amazing park that recently opened there is smelly illegal dumping. Pikitup last seen ages ago.

nAlong the route a ton of Armco barriers damaged and not replaced (a lot in Region F). It is understood that JRA has received delivery, but as slow as they got them delivered are they replacing them.

nSigns related to road use knocked over and not straightened.

I could go on, but the pain in my quads became more painful than the pain in my heart to see Jozi the way I saw it.

Executive Mayor let me ask you:

Did you see what I saw? Are issues that the Regional Urban inspectors log, receiving any attention and did any of the Regional Urban Inspectors take to the route (even in car) to ensure that the City entities were attending to issues along the route in the run up to the big day?

Will you be logging any of the faults you saw for resolution and will you cycle the route again to check if what you logged was in fact resolved?

If there was a prize for the worst performing entity related to service delivery along the cycle route, Joburg Roads Agency would get first prize.

Till next year.