POLOKWANE – Mayor Thembi Nkadimeng, during a report tabled in council on the state of the city on Thursday, said plans had been put in place to address challenges related to infrastructure and the roads in and around the city.
Nkadimeng said a Limpopo Provincial Gazette of June 3, 2014 had taken away the responsibility of arterial roads from municipalities and moved this responsibility to the provincial department of public works, roads and infrastructure.
“In line with this development, the municipality is refocusing its resources towards the inner-city streets, which are not in good condition because most of them have reached their lifespan,” Nkadimeng said.
According to municipal spokesperson, Tidimalo Chuene, this also included the fixing and replacing of road traffic signs in the city.
In a short survey of a two-block radius around a shopping centre in Outspan Drive, Review found:
• Street-name poles being held upright by bricks.
• Badly rusted street signs and traffic signs.
• Illegible traffic signs.
• Traffic signs lying on the ground.
• Street name signs lying on the ground or completely removed.
If such neglect is found in one small area such as this, the big question is: what condition is the rest of the city in?
In a budget speech in 2014 by Nkadimeng, it was said that the unintended consequence of construction of more and more new infrastructure without addressing the condition of existing infrastructure had widened the gap in maintaining the infrastructure.
Chuene said the municipality would like to indicate that all damaged traffic lights and lamp posts that were damaged by accidents were immediately replaced.
This was, however, not the case in areas where Review investigated and found that a streetlight that had been knocked over a week ago was still leaning on the wall of a pre-school in Outspan Drive.
When asked about this, Chuene said the municipality had 24-hour standby personnel on duty that repaired the traffic lights.
“In the event that a traffic light or lamp post can’t be fixed immediately, it will be made safe until it can be replaced a week later,” she further said.
She added that currently the municipality was focusing on the rehabilitation of roads and streets and that in September the teams would be focusing on maintaining the traffic signs.
She said with the filling of positions of the new structure of teams there would be dedicated teams who would only focus on the repair and replacement of traffic signs.
She said the money for the replacement of the signs had been budgeted for by the municipality.
“Most signs that have been removed and bent out of shape have been the result of vandalism and we urge the community to report such cases to the municipality and the authorities to be dealt with,” Chuene said.
For queries and complaints contact: (015) 290 2373/2374/2372 or 015 290 2095/88.
