The Valencia community has recently raised funds and committed their personal time to patch the potholes in their area.

According to the community leader, Shafiq Jeewa, they became tired of driving through potholes and waiting for the City of Mbombela (CoM) to help while motorists kept damaging their vehicles.

“I asked the community if they can do something to get rid of the potholes, because driving in the area is very difficult. The response was positive, because people pledged money to buy materials to fill all the potholes. We managed to raise enough funds to buy the products and then some residents offered to assist with the work,” he said.
ALSO READ: Road between Bushbuckridge and Graskop closed

Jeewa said local businesses also got involved with donations and equipment. Before repairing the roads, they followed proper procedure by consulting the relevant department at the municipality so that they did not find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

ALSO READ:  Koraalboom Street repairs in Mbombela’s West Acres set to be completed by end of June

“The response was positive, as they managed to advise us on how to do a proper job. We managed to close most of the holes in the streets in Valencia, except those that the CoM officials had started working on while we were busy fixing others. They dug up those potholes we did not get to and the community will come together and close them, because we want to keep our community without potholes to protect our cars. We do pay for services and we are aware that there is a budget to fix the potholes, but our municipality does not consider us,” he said.

The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, had not responded to any queries by the time of this being posted.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@lowvelder.co.za.

For free breaking and community news, visit Lowvelder’s website: Lowvelder

For more news and interesting articles, like Lowvelder on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram