Armed with chisels, hammers, spades, and a desire to resolve a long-standing issue, the residents group, Community Heroes, banded together to repair an ignored pothole after a botched job left a tarred scar on the road.
The Community Heroes group is made of residents from around Bromhof, Boskruin, Northworld and surrounds.
The six-year-old pothole measuring 1m x 1.5m at the intersection of Kelly Avenue and President Fouché Drive is traced back to a burst water pipe.
Resident Nikki Belt explained that around six 6 years ago, there was a leaking water pipe under the road. Johannesburg Water sent out a contractor to fix the leak. Once the pipe was fixed, the contractor filled the hole with sand but never laid any tar.
“After numerous calls were logged with JRA, we were told that JRA is not allowed / not able to replace the tar and that Johannesburg Water must attend to it. Again, after numerous calls were then logged with Johannesburg Water, we were told that unless we could produce the original reference number from years ago, they wouldn’t be able to identify the contractor whose responsibility it was to tar the hole and there was nothing they could do about it. So, neither of them was going to tar the road and we decided to do it ourselves to get it done.”
This particular pothole was in the slipway to get from President Fouché Drive onto Kelly Avenue and due to its position, one would need to wait for traffic to start moving so that you could drive around the pothole and into Kelly Avenue. It was a major inconvenience as well as an eyesore. Grass and weeds had been growing in the pothole for around six years.
Community Heroes got together to put an end to the nightmare and turned the bumpy, badly filled pothole into a smooth surface. They spent up to four hours digging to fix the pothole and also did some additional cleaning up on the pavement digging out weeds and grass that have been growing in the drainage channel.
“It didn’t seem like four hours as there was a good community spirit with people driving past and hooting and waving and a few residents stopping and asking to join the group so that they can help out with future projects.”
Ward 101 councillor Ralf Bittkau said that potholes are a major issue in the ward and JRA hasn’t done anything in the last years.
“The people in Bromhof got together to make a difference. They saw a hole that had not been attended to after reporting it several times in three years. They cut it up and they did an excellent job. I cannot blame them and I cannot endorse them because they could be caught illegally, but honestly, what is more illegal is the fact that the city is crumbling around their ears and they are not doing anything to return it to what it was. That is why people are saying we’ve had enough; we are going to fix our own neighbourhood and that is brilliant.”
He added that he cannot speak against them because they are working out of frustration because of how the city treats them.
“The city is falling apart and we are living in a slum and it does not matter where you are. Bromhof is a shambles – if it’s not power, it’s water and roads and it is an absolute pain and I am happy to see residents saying enough is enough,” added Bittkau.
Belt said that they are starting with smaller projects to get the momentum going such as revitalising Freda Road and have been sponsored by Sasol Bromhof.
“We want to revitalise the road by clearing, cleaning and repairing. One of the bigger projects is Golden Harvest Park. We would like to get as many volunteers as possible as that is going to be a huge undertaking. We have had so much crime in the area. Our senior citizens can no longer even walk across the road to SPAR in Bromhof in fear. We have people with pangas jumping over the wall robbing them and then disappearing in the greenbelt. In a nutshell, we want to make our area great again.”
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