‘Deathtrap’

The bridge has no flooring. Crossing it is a precarious exercise in balance and ‘gymnastics’ – this is the state of Utrecht’s Ncuba Bridge.

Ncuba Bridge was built as a pedestrian bridge over the Dorpspruit River, which is crossed daily by people visiting Utrecht from the nearby mountain villages and pupils walking to school.

DA Councillor, Pat Collins, said children crossing the bridge were playing a ‘dangerous game of schoolyard gymnastics’.

“It is an accident waiting to happen,” claimed Cllr Collins.

The distance from the bridge to the bottom is approximately seven meters high. Below, the river gushes along, the rocky bed clearly visible. A fall from the bridge could be fatal.

Before the bridge was built, a steel frame with a concrete slab embedded into the ground was used to cross the river. This steel frame bridge is now almost obsolete.

Recently, Emadlangeni Municipality was rated as a grade A municipality.

This rating suggests the municipality was regarded as one of the best in the province, in terms of fund management, bookkeeping and service delivery.

However, closer to home, some residents argued service delivery was a matter they had come to believe was virtually non-existent.

The issues surrounding the municipality are numerous, chief among which is the Ncuba Bridge.

In 2011, the municipality decided to build a proper pedestrian bridge to cross the river, and R1.3-million was budgeted for the project. A bid for R1.6-million was awarded for the tender, which meant the municipality committed to paying R300 000 extra to the budgeted funds.

Sources revealed the municipality believed the tax rebates on the project would mean they would only pay R1.3 million, and claimed they were ‘duped’ into entering a deal they could not possibly complete.

Today, nearly two years after the project began, the bridge still stands incomplete – a ‘white elephant’ in the Emadlangeni Municipality.

With more than 500 people crossing the bridge daily, people ride the untamed elephant every day.

Cllr Collins said the only alternative to the bridge was to walk an extra 5km around it.

“How will the municipality justify it when somebody falls down and cracks their head open?” he asked.

Children as young as six-years-old often cross the bridge unsupervised. Using the old bridge leads you down the river banks, and is impossible to cross after heavy rains. Coupled with the fact that its location is ideally situated for violent crimes, and the pathway leading to the old bridge is slippery nightmare, the need for the new bridge is highlighted.

The old bridge pathways have led to ‘dongas’ in the embankment, and gabion baskets had to be introduced to the area to support the bridge.

The project is still incomplete, and shows no signs of nearing completion at the moment. This story was brought to the attention of the media on Sunday, February 22. Since then, Emadlangeni Municipality Mayor, Joe Zikhali, has been called for his input regarding the matter 12 times.

When Cllr Zikhali did answer his phone, and the situation was explained to him, he excused himself by saying he was in a meeting and to call him again later. This occurred three times, going as late as 9.30 pm on Tuesday night.

Further calls were placed to Cllr Zikhali on Wednesday morning, at 8.52am, 9.12am, 12.06. Finally at 12:07, his personal assistant answered and claimed Cllr Zikhali was in yet another meeting.

Previous phone calls remained unanswered, even though when Cllr Zikhali was contacted at 7pm on Tuesday evening, he told the journalist to contact him an hour later, or on Wednesday morning.

It must also be noted that Emadlangeni Municipality’s Council only meets on average once a month.

Amajuba District Municipality Speaker, Elias Sigasa, spoke in an earlier interview regarding Emadlangeni Municipality.

He said that as a member of the tri-municipal area governed by the district municipality, Emadlangeni performed well, and was moving in the right direction to address the injustices of the past.

“There are issues in Emadlangeni, there are issues everywhere,” he said. He believed a municipality should address all its issues or risk being accused of poor governance.