Mtubatuba to prioritise flood-damaged road repairs
The letter was accompanied by photographs of the roads said to have been damaged during last month's destructive rains
After an open letter regarding the state of the roads in Mtubatuba’s ward 5 went viral on social media, the ward councillor has since said the routes in question would be dealt with.
Addressed to ward councillor Sindi Ngubane, the letter was accompanied by photographs of the roads said to have been damaged during last month’s destructive rains.
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The letter accuses Ngubane of ignoring the state of the roads, and that a section of the ward had been without electricity for three weeks.
Former ward councillor Sibusiso Gumede penned the letter, and claimed the electricity supply was restored only after ‘intervention of the ANC leadership’.
In the same letter, Gumede cautioned Ngubane to desist from politicking and playing ‘cheap politics’ at community meetings and at the ward’s war room, and advised she focus on service delivery.
Gumede did not respond to a request for comment.
Ngubane hit back and accused Gumede of being the one ‘playing politics’ and seeking to ruin her reputation.
She said Gumede is well aware that Mtubatuba Municipality’s grader is sent to different wards as per a schedule, and that according to the schedule, it was only supposed to work in ward 5 from Tuesday. ‘But I was told the driver of the grader fell ill and had to go to the doctor,’ Ngubane said, adding that a grader had worked on roads throughout the ward in the run-up to the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) roadshow before the heavy rains.
‘A TLB was sent on 5 May to patch up the seriously damaged roads,’ said Ngubane. Regarding the electricity outage, Ngubane said a transformer had exploded, resulting in the power supply being cut.
‘I was up and down with some community members, going to Eskom to get that fixed,’ Ngubane said, disputing Gumede’s claims that the power was restored after ANC intervention.
‘While electricity to the area in question was indeed restored, another section of the ward has been without power since Sunday, 15 May.
A resident, Khanyi Mthethwa said the power went out soon after the heavy rains.
Mthethwa said Eskom had conducted an audit, with its officials going door to door to check electricity meters.
He said once the transformer was fixed, only paying customers’ electrical supply was restored.
‘We had to cook on an open fire, and charge our cellphones and store food at our neighbours. It was a difficult three weeks,’ said Mthethwa.
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