Heavy-load trucks alleged to damage White River’s CBD
White River CBD’s roads are lined with parked heavy hauliers at night. These roads are not designated areas for trucks to park overnight. Some residents feel the situation has reached breaking point.
This thriving and beautiful small town sees many visitors travelling through it to other parts of Mpumalanga, but its upkeep seems to have become the sole responsibility of some concerned citizens and private organisations.
The latest problem is the overnight parking of heavy hauliers in the CBD in areas not designated for trucks, and the drivers using the pavements as public toilets. According to the chairperson of the White River Ratepayers Association, Johan Heymans, the truckers are overnighting in the CBD, especially in Theo Kleynhans Street, and are destroying the roads, sleeping in parking areas not designed for that weight.
“Our sidewalks are their public toilets, and this is not acceptable. The City of Mbombela’s [CoM] law enforcement must act on this. We are also calling on truck owners to tell their drivers to refrain from parking or sleeping in areas not designated for them,” he said.
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“If municipal by-law enforcement were active and effective, they would have put an end to the practice by now, because they are destroying roads the municipality will say they do not have the funds to repair. We are requesting the municipality to quickly act on this before it’s too late; the town is already dilapidated. They must not allow this to happen again.”
The residents claim these drivers leave their trash on the pavements or in the street when they leave in the mornings. However, they also accuse the truckers of attracting criminals and sex workers to town. They now demand that the municipality act on the situation, saying that they don’t want to take the law into their own hands, but if their concerns are not addressed, they will have to do so.
It states in Chapter 11 of the traffic by-laws within the jurisdictional area of the CoM: “No person shall park a vehicle with a tare of 3 500kg or more for a period exceeding one hour at any time after sunset and before sunrise on the roadway, verge, sidewalk or street within a residential area.”
The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, was unavailable for comment by the time of publishing. None of the truck companies whose drivers had allegedly been overnighting in town, had commented by the time of publishing either.
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