Yeoville sidewalk pavements dug up

Piles of rubbles allegedly dug up by Johannesburg Water contractors are the order of the day in Yeoville with residents demanding that the City solves the problem.

The state of the pavements was deemed to be one of the worst as piles of rubbles are dug up and left on the side of the road.

Several streets in the area affected are on the corner of Hunter and Bezuidenhout streets, as well as Isipingo and Natal streets and part of Highlands street.

A long-time resident who wished not to be named alleged that the main culprits were Joburg Water contractors.

An infuriated resident said on top of years-old pipe repairs with dug up pavements that were never reinstated by contractors and left as sand, the problem had recently escalated with new damages on a larger scale.

This problem is allegedly caused by contractors who leave rubbles of pavements on the side of the road, specifically after repairing pipes.

“I can tell you right now, we have heritage paving outside our heritage building and big planters on the other side. Under no circumstances will we allow our pavements to be dug up and smashed and just left once they are finished as they have done in the rest of Yeoville,” she said.

Sidewalks and the road are damaged on Natal Street. Photo: Supplied

She claimed that she tried to reach out to the City but her complaints felt in deaf ears without anyone willing to assist.

“We are seeing large scale damage to pavements as the contractors fill trenches with sand and leave huge pieces of concrete and piles of pavement pieces and heaps of red sand spread everywhere. And then they leave, never to be seen again.”

The woman who is known to this publication said this needs to stop.

“Yeoville already looks like a war zone and a total slum. We hardly need the city adding to this huge mess,” she said.

Johannesburg Water spokesperson Isaac Dhludhlu said the entity has an agreement with service providers (contractors) to reinstate the pavements after every work contract done by them.

When asked who is responsible for reinstating the pavement and clean the rubble when the contractors are done with the repairs, he said it was the contractor or the Johannesburg Water depending on who was working on site.

He said the entity inspects the area during and after the work is done. He encouraged customers to report non-compliance to the City’s entity.

“Customers are urged to report non-compliance to the call centre so that the matter can be escalated to the operations department,” concluded Dhlidhlu.

Details: Johannesburg Water 011 688 1699.

Related Article: 

https://northeasterntribune.co.za/200105/johannesburg-water-says-vandalism-of-water-infrastructure-is-wasting-money-and-water/