It may be a little too premature to sing the praises of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA).
This according to Ward 32 Councillor Bongani Nkomo in response to the relaunch of the City of Johannesburg’s War on Potholes campaign. All eyes were on Region E on 8 September as MMC of Transport Nonhlanhla Makhuba kick-started the campaign at the Sandton Customer Service Centre.
Week three of the service delivery blitz by the agency aims to address the backlog of road defects with emphasis on potholes in the region. Wards 32, 71, 73, 81 and 116 has been identified by the City utility has urgent areas of concern.
The campaign was first launched earlier this year but it was forced to be put on hold when the national lockdown came into effect. JRA was not classified as an essential service until alert Level 3 of the lockdown, which then only allowed the agency to operate with limited staff. Under alert Level 2, the agency is able to cover more ground.
With this in mind, Makhuba aims for the agency to clear the backlog of outstanding work by mid-October.
Nkomo remains sceptical about this target as the current state of the roads in his ward are in such poor condition.
“The response from JRA has been poor to non-existent. I can recall a number of instances where residents have logged issues, obtained reference numbers with no delivery forthcoming,” he claimed.
He added that in many cases, calls reported to the agency were often closed and marked as resolved when in reality no work had been carried out.
Nkomo said until the agency came up with a long-term effective solution, the war on potholes would be lost. “I have in the past urged them to provide a pothole response schedule which would essentially allow for the necessary oversight and communication re-developments [progress] to [be relayed to] residents and in doing so manage frustrations and expectations.”
He paid gratitude to the community and the various community associations who take the initiative to report issues and in some cases, repair the roads themselves where possible.
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