POLOKWANE – Residents of smallholdings and farms in and around the city signed a petition to urge the Polokwane Municipality to attend to the maintenance of gravel roads in the city cluster and not to concentrate only on the roads in rural areas.
The petition, signed by 293 residents, was delivered to the office of the council speaker on Friday by DA councillor Jacques Joubert, who led the initiative.
The petitioners argue that new graders were purchased for some municipal clusters while the city cluster is expected to be satisfied with old deteriorated graders that are in for repairs most of the time, and added that residents pay monthly assessment rates and receive no municipal services in return.
The signatories to the petition demanded urgent and proper grading of roads and urgent re-gravelling where required, a budget allocation for new graders for the city cluster and the identification of borrowing pits to source soil for the purpose of re-gravelling.
They also requested the municipality to draft a scheduled maintenance plan for all gravel roads around Polokwane and that the municipal manager present a comprehensive report to council regarding the status of all gravel roads, the relevant amount budgeted for maintenance of gravel roads for the current year as well as how much has been spent to date in the last financial year.
They also requested information regarding the current schedule of planned maintenance of gravel roads and a list of approved borrowing pits as well as problems obtaining new borrowing pits.
“We demand immediate action steps for the remainder of this financial year,” the petitioners urged.
