Ward 96 councillor Rufas Maswazi said he is disappointed with the Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) continued delays in resurfacing Pine Road near the Bushwillow intersection.

“I am equally very disappointed by the treatment given to our residents by JRA,” said Maswazi. “All the excuses they have been giving throughout our follow-ups are an indication that we are dealing with an entity which only thinks about collecting rates from customers but doesn’t care about rendering the services they have promised.”

Read more: JRA is fixing Ward 94s streets

Maswazi revealed that he has personally taken members of the JRA around Broadacres, Chartwell, and Cosmo Creek to show them the poor state of local roads.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation that the ratepayers are being punished for being good citizens. I have forwarded this concern to the attention of the Speaker’s Office as well, hoping that her intervention will expedite the process.”

Residents have been raising the alarm over Pine Road for months, and according to Maswazi, the issue has been escalated multiple times over the past four months with little to no visible progress.

He said during a follow-up engagement on July 12, a representative from the road maintenance team again confirmed the city’s commitment to resurfacing Pine Road, with an estimated delay of two additional weeks, though no firm timeline has been provided.

JRA’s regional operations manager, Khayalethu Gqibitole, confirmed that Pine Road is scheduled for resurfacing during the current financial year. “While the final resurfacing plan is yet to be finalised, the depot will patch potholes in the interim to ensure the road remains drivable,” he said.

Gqibitole added that recent resurfacing work had been completed on nearby Bushwillow and Richard roads and assured residents that Pine Road ‘remains a priority on our list’. Responding to concerns about the delay, Gqibitole pointed to a region-wide maintenance backlog.
“To ensure fairness and balanced service delivery, we are unable to remain in a single ward for an extended period.”
Gqibitole has also defended its project rollout strategy, stating that resurfacing priorities are based on technical assessments, resource availability, budget constraints, and regional needs.

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