MISA says the government must find a solution to South Africa’s pothole problem
Following the damage caused by the recent rains and floods, communities across South Africa began to repair their own potholes.
MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association, says the government must find a solution to South Africa’s pothole problem before reprimanding private companies and ordinary citizens who do repairs at their own expense.
According to a national news outlet, Martlé Keyter, MISA’s Chief Executive Officer: Operations explained Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget of R142,9 billion for the next three years to fund efforts to construct, upgrade, and maintain national and provincial road networks was adequate to include repairing the estimated 25 million potholes on our roads.
The budget is allocated to the Road Transport programme and the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) Road Oversight sub-programmes, according to National Treasury.
“Both programs have specific targets, such as the Department’s strengthening and upgrading of the national non-toll network, the N2 Wild Coast project, the long-awaited R573 Moloto Road development corridor, and the Gauteng freeway improvement project.
” Sanral must also serve large debt redemptions due to its inability to generate enough toll revenue. No specific mention is made of the Department of Transport’s national pothole-repair campaign, Operation Vala Zonke, which was launched five months ago,” says Keyter.
The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPDWayne )’s Minnaar warned that it is illegal for citizens to repair potholes themselves. This comes after JMPD officers threatened a Good Samaritan in the city with prosecution if they continued to repair potholes.
Following the damage caused by the recent rains and floods, communities across South Africa began to repair their own potholes.
According to Keyter, the Knysna Municipality has guidelines on its website that explain how to fix potholes. Vusi Manganyi of Mamelodi East, Pretoria, puts bread on the table by filling potholes on Tsamaya Avenue in exchange for donations.
“MISA appeals to Government, Provinces and Municipalities to cooperate with initiatives from the private sector and citizens to ensure that potholes are fixed correctly. A steel company in Vanderbijlpark is already repairing potholes and installing lights worth R2.2 million in support of the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM).
“The opposite is happening in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, where a group of young people at Theku Plaza, Osizweni, are filling potholes with rubble and asking residents for donations. Councillor Imran Keeka, a member of the KZN Legislature, warned residents that they must follow a series of steps before taking charge because there are legal ramifications if something goes wrong or the work is subpar.
“All of these arguments will be meaningless to motorists who have to pay every time they hit a pothole,” Keyter says.
Sanral denies that there are an estimated 25 million potholes on our roads. Despite Sanral’s claims that this figure is “improbable” and “unlikely,” it is unable to provide South African motorists with a more accurate figure for our 168 000 km of paved road network.
Despite the Operation Vala Zonke project, the Department of Transport has yet to provide an accurate pothole figure.
This project is a collaborative effort to repair potholes by the nine provinces and all 278 municipalities, which include eight metropolitan municipalities, 44 districts, and 226 local municipalities.
Read original article here: Transport budget will disappear in pothole repairs, MISA says
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