10 years and no tar road
'If we don't pay our electricity for just one month the municipality is quick to deliver green letters but they can't fix the roads' – Resident.
“I have lived here for ten years and there is still no plan to tar our street,” said an angry Eike Park resident, explaining the state of infrastructure around her home to the Herald.
Tebogo Mputle said she has had it with the Randfontein Local Municipality as she has been living in Mossie Massyn Street for the past ten years and it remains a dirt road.
People don’t want to visit us because of all the dust in the road. Their cars will get dirty. When people do visit, they park their cars in the road behind my house and walk over,” she said.
Beyond the dirt road is an open field, exposing her property to the dusty whirlwinds. “I clean my house and 10 minutes later it’s covered in dust again. You should see my curtains,” she said.
Besides the dust, the road is so narrow it only accommodates one car at a time. “If another car approaches mine, I have to drive on my neighbour’s lawn or in the veld to get past.”
It is not just practicality that is the problem but also the hazard of a one-lane road as the only bend going into Mossie Massyn Street is sharp and anyone entering or exiting the street cannot see oncoming traffic, which could lead to a head-on collision.
The road does not have proper drainage either and during the rainy months, large puddles form in the various dips in the road. Another resident who lives a few houses from Tebogo’s had dug a trench to prevent the water from flooding their driveway.
When we don’t pay our electricity for just one month the municipality is quick to deliver green letters, but they can’t fix the roads. I don’t mind the green letter but when I pay, my money must work for me,” Tebogo said.
Lastly, Tebogo finds it unacceptable that the road has no name and cannot be found on Google maps or by most GPSes. “People do not know where my home is. When people come visit I have to give them the name of the street behind our street and then explain to them on the phone how to find us from there.”
Craig Harrison, Ward Councillor for the area said since 2011 he has been requesting Council to have the road tarred. Furthermore, since 2009 it has been put forward in his IDPs to get street name boards up in his ward.
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