A rare glimpse into the Tshwane metro’s thinking and priorities in road repairs was given at a recent meeting in Waterkloof.
At the occasion held on Saturday to discuss service delivery grievances of residents, metro deputy director Keith Tulloch gave some revealing replies.
Tulloch listed norms and standards regarded as reasonable by the metro in repairing roads as follows:
– Time taken to repair single pothole in a major road: 24 hours for temporary repair and two days for final repair.
– Time taken to repair a single pothole in a minor road: 24 hours for temporary repair and two days for final repair.
– Time taken to repair or replace a kerb: 15 working days.
– Time taken to repair walkways: 15 working days.
– Time taken to replace a safety-related regulatory road sign: 48 hours.
– Time taken to repair or replace other minor road signs: 10 working days.
– Time taken to repair or replace an information or directional sign: 15 days.
– Time taken to repair or replace street name board: 45 days.
– Time taken to repaint road markings: 15 working days.
– Time taken to replace missing manhole covers: two days.
– The only three items warranting immediate response was a if road collapses, a dangerous spill on a road or when work was in progress with no proper barricading.
About 100 residents attended the meeting, but Tulloch was the only metro official to turn up.
Most questions from the floor related to road infrastructure, electricity cutoffs before the due date of payment, trees and grass left on pavements after pruning by metro wokers, overflowing refuse sites, the state of the Muckleneuk tennis court which had become a home for vagrants, and streets not being upgraded.
Waterkloof councillors, Siobhan Muller and Bronwynn Engelbrecht, who chaired the meeting, tried to explain to residents what has been done about issues such as electricity cutoffs.
“Electricity is obviously a major issue, but with the officials of the electricity department not turning up for the meeting we could obviously not address this to the satisfaction of the residents,” Engelbrecht said.
Muller said: “Only one official arrived to give feedback. This is shocking treatment of ratepayers.”
Solomon Mahlangu Drive around the Waterkloof Air Force Base was widely discussed with speaker after speaker pointing out that an upgrade of this road is long overdue. Streetlights were also not working and therefore posing a danger at night.
Tulloch said this was a provincial road that fell under the auspices of provincial government. Any enquiries about an upgrade should be directed to the provincial government.
He said 192 complaints were received from the Waterkloof area from 1 July 2014 to 30 January 2015.
They related to regulatory signs, manhole covers, potholes and flooding. Some 80 road-related complaints were made. A total of 821 about storm water issues were received. Only 23 people lodged complaints on traffic signs and markings, Tulloch said.
