Motorists and pedestrians in Florida, Helderkruin and other areas in Roodepoort are feeling unsafe when using the roads these days – whether driving or walking on the sidewalk.
According to Hennie Coetzee, a resident in Florida, the sidewalk and centre median on Hamberg Road are a big concern. “The grass is almost waist high and visibility is very poor. This is posing a big danger for pedestrians – especially the mothers walking here when they are dropping off and picking up their children at Laerskool Die Ruiter,” he said. According to him, an elderly woman was also almost knocked over recently when she wanted to cross the road.
He said he had reported the matter to the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) as well as the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) on numerous occasions – since November last year – without any joy. “I was told that this is the responsibility of the residents, but did not leave it at that. I involved our ward councillor, Gert Niemand as well, and it appears that they decided to start cutting the grass on 26 January,” he said.
Vicki Brown, a resident from Helderkruin also raised some concerns about the overgrown grass on Elkie Drive. “This is an accident waiting to happen as the pavement is neglected and people misjudge the road – they think there is a pavement but it is in actual fact, just a solid drop. The grass is so long you cannot see any oncoming cars and added to this, hijackers and other criminals wait in the grass for you to stop at the stop sign and then jump into action. This is just one of the sidewalks being neglected by City Parks in the area,” she said.
The councillor for Ward 84, Gert Niemand, said he is aware of this matter, as well as the long grass across the greater Roodepoort area. “I’ve had numerous phone calls from concerned residents complaining about this. The entities responsible for this service delivery issue are JRA and JCPZ, which I have personally engaged about not only Hamberg Road, but numerous other roads in the greater Roodepoort area, including Trezona Avenue. Overgrown grass is not only a huge problem in Ward 84 – it’s a problem city wide,” he said.
Niemand also said that the response from the entities was unacceptable and reflected badly on both entities’ service delivery and planning. “This is not the first year this has happened, as for many years we’ve battled with the so-called ‘seasonal backlog’. It has already been addressed through the management and the new administration will ensure this will not be a problem in future,” he said.
According to Bertha Scheepers, the spokesperson for JRA, they are setting up schedules for grass cutting and workers will be starting this task in all the relevant areas as a matter of urgency. “Residents can report areas in need of grass-cutting by logging a call through the City’s call centre on 0860 562 874 or by sending an email to hotline@jra.org.za.
The process when reporting the need for grass-cutting is as follows:
– Resident logs a call for grass-cutting on sidewalks with the JRA
– JRA contracts the request out to a third party with whom they have a service level agreement
– These contractors are sometimes private companies and sometimes entities such as JCPZ
– The contractors are then issued with a work order and go out and clean up the sidewalks.
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