About a year and a half after the Merafong City Local Municipality promised that they will repair the bridge near Wedela, the work has still not been done.

Drivers, including those of emergency vehicles, are forced to drive past Mponeng Mine if they want to get to Wedela from the side of Fochville or the N12.

This is because the road that leads past Wedela graveyard has been closed since 2022 after it was damaged by flood water, and then left to collapse further.

After neither the provincial government nor the mines wanting to help fix the bridge, as it is Merafong’s responsibility, the municipality eventually promised that repairs would start in September 2023.

The municipality even closed the Wedela graveyard as residents have to use the bridge to access it.

Although Merafong declared in an official press statement that they had secured funding through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to fix the bridge, the work was never done and the municipality is not saying what happened to the money.

Even though there was a small piece of the bridge left it has since collapsed completely. Some drivers with nerves of steel continue to use the road and drive over pieces of corrugated iron to get to and from Wedela. They acknowledged, however, this is very dangerous.

“Merafong is just useless and they do not care about us. Maybe they might do something before the election,” several residents remarked when the Herald asked them how they feel over the issue.

The municipality’s marketing and communications manager, Temba Fezani, again did not answer questions about the matter by printing time.