Some residents in Hazyview claimed that the planning and development of infrastructure and roads in Vakansiedorp, Numbi Park and the CBD have fallen victim to poor maintenance and lack of upholding national building regulations.

They are accusing the City of Mbombela (CoM) of not doing regular maintenance.

Residents claimed that these areas are dotted with unfinished buildings, that the Mbombela road servitude is being misused for the dumping and storing of building materials, that there are potholes and trenches in tarred access roads that haven’t been properly repaired, and that there are half-built houses everywhere.

“As the ratepayers, we are fed up with how the town looks, especially in the residential areas. This once beautiful town that houses tourism destinations now looks like an ill-kept informal area. We are paying for services that are not rendered. We call on the municipality to do what is right for us, the residents of this municipality,” they said.

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The FF Plus’s councillor, Ken Robertson, said the complaints about the roads and buildings have fallen on deaf ears.

“I have engaged the entire CoM department responsible for roads and by-law enforcement, including the speaker, William Nkatha, and the municipal manager, Wiseman Khumalo, on numerous attempts to be placed on the Section 79 portfolio of city planning and development so that I can address this issue from the Mbombela political realm, and that, too, has been blatantly stopped. I indicated that letters from the department should be served on people in breach of city by-laws and building regulations, yet nothing has changed. In fact, the town looks worse than ever,” he said.

Robertson also said the road reserves in the town are not kept and that the continuous complaints to the local department are met with passive resistance or aggression, yet nothing gets done about initiating work standards that are up to the Hazyview home- and business-owners’ standards.

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“Potholes that have been repaired on the R40 are not completed. The old gravel and tar that have been removed from the failing road surface is left on the sidewalk for so long that grass and weeds eventually grow over it and pedestrians have to walk around these heaps,” he said.

Robertson added that the municipality increases the property values every year so that homeowners and businesses can keep funding it through rates and taxes, but the deterioration of the town does not justify the property value increases. He insisted that property values decrease because of crime and untidiness, but the ratepayers are just expected to cough up every month.

The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, had not commented on the matter by the time of going online.