Pretoria - The unpleasant state of roads in Olievenhoutbosch was not a problem that had arisen overnight but the product of the community’s exponential growth and years of neglect, according to ward councillor Kenny Masha.
Masha made the remarks during a weekend smart mobility programme pioneered by the provincial Department of Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure to repair roads across the province.
Masha, who welcomed the MMC for Roads and Transport in Tshwane, Dikeledi Selowa, who also represented MEC Jacob Mamabolo, said the state of the roads in the township was unbearable and one of the reasons for the many protests in the community when people were frustrated.
He said: “I would say since 2016 this community has been neglected on a lot of service delivery issues but as we have brought the provincial and local departments responsible for roads and transport, we focused on showing them the state of our roads.
“Mamabolo has come here before but we sought his intervention again because we thought this problem here in Olievenhoutbosch is huge. The roads are undrivable and damage people’s cars. We also want the City of Tshwane to come in and play ball because this must not continue to happen.
“Another problem we want to highlight is that some of the departments that are responsible for this deterioration of road infrastructure at the City, such as Water and Sanitation and Roads and Stormwater, instead of resolving the problems we were raising, they would play the blame game of saying this is not our responsibility but the responsibility of other departments; back and forth.”
Masha said they could see trucks and workers from the provincial government patching potholes but the City needed to come on board because the provincial government’s support would be limited and its audits negatively affected if it did all the work.
“We know the City of Tshwane now has the Bon Accord quarry crusher plant so we want to see them bring some of the asphalt here. We want them to also help fix these roads because essentially the important thing is providing services to the people,” Masha added.
Selowa explained that the exponential growth of the community could not be anticipated but it was at a point where some people built structures on road reserves, something that should be looked at.
She said the City had been doing work in the area but they acknowledged that the community has a problem with groundwater, which placed the City in an awkward position because areas that were fixed would become ruined once more due to lack of stormwater infrastructure.
“The councillors in the area raised the issues so we are here as the City and provincial government through the partnership that we have to see the extent of the damage, but as well, to do some road maintenance. We are patching massive potholes. Through our assessment we have seen the serious challenge of underground water here and until that is addressed … the roads that you fix – you are just working backwards,” said Selowa.
Pretoria News