MORE than 3 000 roads complaints, of which most are pothole-related, were lodged with the metro from January to March.
Fifteen per cent of the 3 108 complaints lodged are within Kempton Park, Clr Johann Jordaan, DA whip for Kempton Park and Tembisa councillors, said in a statement on Monday.
“The DA calls on Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to immediately fulfil its legal obligations to residents by fixing our crumbling road network,” he said.
He said the average lead time for complaints for this period was 75 days. Complaints lodged before this time are not included.
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“The service payment level of Kempton residents for the same period is 100.85 per cent (R749 527 944). The repairs and maintenance of roads are 54 per cent below budget on the third quarter and 42.80 per cent below the year to date budget. The total unspent grants at the end of the March was R1.5 billion, while the municipality had actual cash available of R8.6 billion in its bank accounts,” Jordaan said.
“This is an absolute disgrace and the MMC for roads and transport, under whose watch this took place, suffered no accountability consequences.
“This continuous decline in operational capacity, along with the poor quality and slow pace of service delivery by the metro, has resulted in numerous road deficiencies across Ekurhuleni. Roads across the metro are littered with potholes of every shape and size and are being flooded due to blocked storm water drains because maintenance programmes are either non-existent or not being implemented in a sustainable way.
The metro has also failed to appoint tar and bitumen suppliers and contractors timeously, Jordaan said.
“This, combined with the lack of awarding tenders to contractors and the suspension of officials of the roads department have prevented the regular maintenance of Ekurhuleni roads. As a result, the safety of residents travelling on our roads is being compromised and when damage claims are submitted to the metro, they renounce it, causing further financial hardship to residents.
“Residents therefore have all the right to demand that the roads in Kempton Park get immediate attention and that our roads are fixed without any further delay,” Jordaan said.
