Letter: ‘Repair’ is a disgrace

George Dunn of Sheffield Beach writes:

It is hard to believe that we are in the 21st Century, when we consider the state of our local roads and other infrastructure, with particular reference to the gaping hole in Sheffield Drive.

This is now the third time that it has collapsed over the last 6 years.

Simply put – the repairs were never correctly done. During the “Dolly Govender” road show – read “spin show” – late last year at the Salt Rock library, I and many other residents pleaded with her to urgently attend to the above, and also to have the P474 inspected and fixed as it was also in danger of collapse.

Were this to happen residents north of these points would be marooned.

The action we got was a disgrace.

The Sheffield Drive hole was filled with sand and stone and capped with tar, at a cost of R24 000.

This collapsed within 24 hours!

The problem on the P474 was pointed out to the head of civils at KDM and he stated that this could easily be fixed.

I would like to put on record that both of his “quick fixes” were an engineering disaster, with ratepayers’ money literally being poured down the drain.

This continual waste of money has to stop and proper quality repairs, maintenance and accountability must be the norm.

Value must be given for every rand spent.

The municipality must come to a realisation that the money it spends so freely and wantonly comes from our rates – and perhaps it is time that we must consider a rates boycott until our needs are met.