Residents repair road after years of municipal inaction
Residents of Wisteria Avenue in Schuinshoogte took action to fix a crumbling intersection after two years of failed municipal intervention. Read more here:
After two years of what they describe as ‘begging and pleading’ for municipal intervention, residents of Wisteria Avenue in Schuinshoogte have taken it upon themselves to repair a badly damaged intersection.
The entrance to the street, located at the intersection of Wisteria Avenue and Disa Road, had deteriorated to such an extent that residents said they struggled to access their homes.
One resident, Morris, explained the issue began about two years ago after a faulty fire hydrant started to leak water onto the road.
“The continuous water flow eventually caused the tar to start crumbling to the point where it became a ‘donga’ across the breadth of the intersection,” he said.
A formal memorandum was signed by the affected households and submitted to the municipality.
The letter highlighted that the road had become almost impassable and urged urgent municipal intervention, pointing out that the street is a cul-de-sac with no alternative route.
“We, the undersigned residents of Wisteria Avenue, Schuinshoogte, are hereby aggrieved with the long-standing and deteriorating state of the entrance to our street… It has become painful to negotiate your way driving in or out of the street daily!” the memorandum read.
While the municipality did eventually replace the fire hydrants, the road surface was left untouched, despite subsequent telephonic follow-up communications with the road department section of the municipality on two occasions, where a promise of a ‘temporary seal’ of the donga was made after a plea of action to this long-standing problem by the resident representative with the latest interaction with the municipality official!
Fed up with the inaction, Seven households pooled their resources and purchased several bags of concrete to patch up the worst-affected area themselves.
“We have had enough,” said Morris. “This is the time to stop waiting and do something.”
He expressed gratitude to all who contributed; whether it was a bag of concrete or cement, helping with the labour, wages for the workers, or simply allowing access to water.
“It was all dearly appreciated,” he concluded.
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