JRA service delivery blitz unblocks Region F

A JRA blitz, which forms part of Transport Month, means visible service delivery on-road service defects in a chosen area.

Teams from surrounding depots joined in the activities on the day, which consisted mainly of reinstatements, road patching and blocked stormwater drains. Teams were welcomed by the ward councillor Refilwe Mazibuko, with acting operations manager for regional operations for Region F, Puleng Mokgohloa, who outlined the main issues in the area and explained how reinstatements form the bulk of backlog in Region F.

Head of regional operations Muziwandile Nkonyane gave an overview of the challenges faced in the region, “The purpose of today is to deal with the backlog we have due to the high number of service requests in reactive maintenance in this region.

“This region is inundated with service requests, about 5 000 of which come from Joburg Water alone, in a year. Already in the first quarter of this financial year (2019/20), we have received more than 850 service requests only in this region, this indicates that our infrastructure is being dug every day.”

According to the number of service requests, it is evident that Region F has faced some challenges in recent months, though there is a lot the JRA is doing in the region, there is still a lot to be done. Mokgohloa said the soft spot for this region would be the highest number of reinstatements to be done.

Nkonyane argued that although there are teams who work hard in this region, the City might not have the correct number of personnel to match the number of service requests we receive.

“We have several initiatives that we are looking at as the executive of the entity, such as the capacity constraints, capacity in numbers of employees and skills we possess within our regional operations. I think if the MD was here, he would concur that Region F has a lot of challenges, but we want to analyse and see what is required here against, the personnel that is required.”

Teams made their way to Natal Street in Bellevue for reinstatements and onto Hendon Street to clean blocked stormswater drains, which would form part of the preparation for the upcoming rainy season.

Mokgohloa said the stormwater drains on Hendon Street were always blocked and the City gets continued complaints about the blocked drains. “Yeoville, Jeppestown and Hillbrow is a daily challenge. We clean and get calls in a few days to come because there are blocked sewer connections,” said Mokgohloa.

“People throw things in the drains as they please. Naturally, we are supposed to come here twice a year if you have a proper plan, but due to the high number of requests, it has to be more.”

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https://northeasterntribune.co.za/243751/city-starts-celebrations-of-transport-month-significantly/