Town’s worsening infrastructure a cause for concern

BURGERSFORT – Residents are fed up with the dilapidated infrastructures in town.

Driving into town from either direction is an eyesore. At one time or another traffic lights are not working.

Litter is strewn everywhere, and in an effort to try to dodge a pothole you have to swerve risking a collision with another vehicle. Not a week goes by without an accident being caused by lack of basic essentials like functioning traffic lights and the condition of the roads.

Morone Street, which has recently been under construction, is once again in a horrific state. Water leaks cause existing potholes to become even larger and deeper. It is a busy street that functions as thoroughfare for trucks transporting goods from and to businesses located next to the road. Motorists prefer this road, rather than the main one because of the crime at the robots in the inner town.

“I make use of Morone Street because people try to open your door while you stop at the traffic lights on the main road in town. With all the potholes in Marone Street, it is like one has to choose between having your car broken into while you wait at the traffic lights or taking your chance on the street and damaging your tyres and rims. I now rather drive all the way to Steelpoort and take the Olifantspoortjie road to get home,” says an angry motorist, Ms Marlene Prinsloo.

The route at the back of Supa Quick to the Shoprite Centre has a major pipe leakage and the road is almost inaccessible. According to an anonymous source, he and other motorists have repeatedly reported the problem but little has been done about it. According to him, the problem has been ongoing for the past seven years. Conditions in the suburbs are not much better. In Elephants Hill, roads that had been dug up to fix leaking pipes were only covered with a little soil, leaving a ditch the width of the road. In Elephants Hill 1 Steelburger/Lydenburg News found three leaking pipes with water running down the street for up to 100 metres. A cable was visible in a pothole, where it had been dug up and never covered again.

There are no street lights in Elephants Hill 1 and 2, Aloe Ridge East and West and Lions Rock. This is not only dangerous for vehicles travelling at night, but can also contribute to crime. “We have definitely seen an increase in crime since the street lights went out,” says resident, Ms Sanet van Biljon.

Leaking sewage is another problem. At times it runs runs down the road in front of the Modikwa Clinic for weeks on end. This causes a health risk to people, especially children from the Magale Wabagale High School who have to walk past it. A leak in Lions Rock has also surfaced. What was first presumed to be a water leak was later discovered to be sewage leaking from an underground pipe. This particular leak has been spiling sewage into the street for the past four weeks. Spokesman for the Greater Tubatse Municipality, Mr Thabiso Mokoena, assured Steelburger/Lydenburg News that a contractor had been hired to attend to the damaged roads.