No end to negligence at Daspoort tunnel in Pretoria West
“The tunnel has become a very sad situation due to utter neglect. People are being robbed in the tunnel, including learners who are robbed of their bookcases. Motorists are forced to drive through potholes,” said Guli.
Residents in the west of Pretoria have raised concerns about the neglect at the Daspoort tunnel.
It has become a hotspot area for crime and a danger to drive through, especially at night, due to the non-working street lights.
“The tunnel has always been kept in a very neat and pristine way for many years. However for the last 15-20 years it has become a source of worry as it is a health-and-safety issue,” said Odette Guli, a resident who lives near the tunnel.
According to Guli the sidewalk rails at the tunnel has been stolen, causing difficulty for pedestrians to walk across. The sidewalk has also become very dirty and muddy caused by the sewage pipe leaks that run over the top of the tunnel.
“The tunnel has become a very sad situation due to utter neglect. People are being robbed in the tunnel, including learners who are robbed of their bookcases. Motorists are forced to drive through potholes,” said Guli.
She added that there were also no working lights outside the tunnel for pedestrians that need to use the tunnel in the late afternoon and that the bushes leading to the tunnel grows quite fast and is not cut regularly. If cut, it is then left on the sidewalk and not removed.
“This is an utter disgrace and a safety issue and we don’t know what to do anymore.”
Metro spokesperson, Sipho Stuurman has refrained from calling the cause of the situation at the tunnel “utter neglect”. Instead he said the reason for the backlog to repairing the tunnel was due to budget constraints.
“The municipality would like to ensure that all residents live in a safe space where the infrastructure is working properly. We do have some backlogs in certain areas but we also have teams who are deployed daily to fix problems in the city,” said Stuurman.
He added that the backlogs on grass cutting and patching potholes was due to the high level of rains the province was experiencing.
Stuurman also highlighted that the TMPD was on alert for any crime and urged residents to report hotspot areas to the department.
“We don’t want our residents to experience any form of crime. Police visibility is important and with residents’ assistance we can deploy police to hotspot areas to continuously monitor,” said Stuurman.
He added that fighting crime was not the responsibility of TMPD alone but also that of the SAPS and that other municipal issues should also be reported regularly to the ward councillor.
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