“It’s been months since they’ve worked on this road. Just look at it now! There has been absolutely no progress!” – Angry residents of Jackaroo Park made their voices heard about the current state of the road at the entrance to Jackaroo Park on the Old Middleburg road.
As they had eight months ago, DA councillors Roy Cronjé, Moosa Bhamjee and Johan Taljaard together with Mike Hilton, met once again on the Old Middleburg road on Monday, October 13 to discuss the current state of the road.
It was almost a year ago that the councillors had brought the matter of the seriously deteriorating road up with the municipality and also the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).
Cronjé then explained that the road was split between provincial roads and local municipality and it had taken some time to figure out who to hold responsible for the repairs.
In the end the councillors agreed that the road had to be more of a provincial than local problem.
“Because this road is used as an alternative route for heavy vehicles, it makes sense that it would fall under provincial responsibility,” Taljaard stated.
Mr Nuno Gomes, operations and maintenance manager/ project engineer at SANRAL was contacted in March. He had then replied that the previous contractor had left and that they were awaiting a new contractor who would start soon.
The road repairs did start, but it was a slow progress according to residents and motorists who use the road every day. The ‘trench’ that was dug out next to the old Middleburg road before the turnoff was filled up again, but residents mean that it makes the road no less dangerous than before.
The repairs on the road suddenly came to a stop then and Cronjé reported that it had been six months since they’ve last seen a contractor on site.
“They have started with the repairs again, but at this pace they won’t get anything finished before the end of the year,” Cronjé said, explaining that a lot of work needs still to be done – such as fitting the storm-water pipes – before the foundation can be laid.
The councillors explained that they are now facing the same issue about who has to take responsibility for repairs as they did before. The current Project Manager, Mr Mike Yorke-Hart from SANRAL said on Tuesday, October 14 that the road did not fall under the maintenance plan for provincial roads. The full report was not received before print.
