Residents and motorists in Moreleta Park, Garsfontein, and Equestria, in the east of Pretoria, are demanding urgent action as road conditions in the area continue to deteriorate.

With the rainy season, the condition of the already damaged roads continues to decline, with potholes becoming larger.

Residents claim that the potholes that were ‘fixed’ before the rainy season have already reopened, and many believe that the metro only applied quick patches instead of proper road repairs.

Roads like Libertas, Furrow, Willow, De Villebois Mareuil, Dam, and many others are now unsafe to drive on.

Ward 91 councillor Henning Viljoen said many roads in his ward have deteriorated tremendously.

He said the roads are bad, but De Villebois Mareuil, Dam, Foxtrot, Elandt, and Sinovich are particularly bad and unsafe for motorists.

“We are working through a significant maintenance backlog, made worse by roads that have not been resurfaced according to industry-standard cycles, due to financial constraints. This has directly contributed to the deterioration residents are experiencing,” said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.

He explained that many of the affected roads now require full resurfacing rather than patching.

“Without proper resurfacing, water ingress, especially during heavy rains, causes patched sections to fail repeatedly,” Mashigo said.

On how repairs are scheduled, Mashigo noted that the metro follows a structured system.

“Repairs are prioritised and executed on a first-come, first-served basis through the city’s CRM [Customer Relations Management] system. Each reported issue is assigned a reference number and attended to accordingly,” he said.

Mashigo said the metro relies on its existing maintenance budget.

“Road maintenance is carried out through reactive maintenance budgets, while planned maintenance and new infrastructure have separate allocations. Our reactive maintenance section uses its budget to maintain assets across 24 wards,” he explained.

He added that long-term solutions require major rehabilitation.

“Long-term durability needs full resurfacing or the construction of new road layers where the base has deteriorated. These engineering interventions are essential to prevent recurring failures,” he said.

Mashigo confirmed that the city has ongoing assessments as part of the metro’s process.

“Assessments are conducted as and when road sections become due for attention, based on CRM reports and on-site conditions,” he said.

He encouraged residents to report potholes or bad roads to the city and through their ward councillors.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok.