Volunteers fill up potholes ‘wrecking our cars’
Residents volunteered to help out to patch the potholes damaging their vehicles and contributed cement, sand and concrete to the effort.
Frustrated residents of Mamelodi Gardens Extension 2 have taken it upon themselves to repair the streets ravaged by potholes.
Resident Phillimon Siwele said community members meet every Saturday to fill the potholes.
He said Naledi and Sehlong streets were particularly in a bad condition, and claimed Tshwane was failing them so they could not just stand idly by while potholes damaged their vehicles every day.
Siwele said the residents came together to discuss how to fix the potholes since Tshwane failed to.
He said members of 23 households volunteered to patch the road and donated cement, sand, and concrete.
“We come together every Saturday morning with our own tools and start patching the holes with concrete,” said Siwele.
The volunteers are currently fixing Naledi and Sehlong streets.
Siwele said: “We are fixing the roads ourselves because we want to live in a pothole-free society.”
He said fixing damaged vehicles was costlier than filling potholes.
“The massive potholes frustrated motorists on a daily basis, and when it rains, the situation got worse.
No more spending a lot of money on expensive car parts to fix our vehicles damaged by potholes.
We reported the potholes to the metro earlier this year, and it has since promised to send a repair team.
We have been waiting since, to date the metro has said and done nothing.”
He said when they are done with the two streets they are working on currently, 10 more damaged streets in Mamelodi Gardens Extension 2 awaited.
“We cannot wait for Tshwane to fix potholes while we have hands, because cars are damaged every day.”
The volunteers claimed cheap materials were used in the construction of the local tar roads hence potholes formed easily when it rained.
Siwele said almost all 50 streets or so in Mamelodi Gardens Extension 2 had massive potholes.
“We are only talking about streets in Mamelodi Gardens Extension 2; what about other areas in Mamelodi?” he asked.
The residents said all they ask now is that Tshwane at least help them out since they are taking over its responsibility.
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