HIGHVELD – Service delivery is still a major concern to the residents of Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM).
The residents are unhappy with the performance of the municipality in various areas such eMbalenhle, eMzinoni and Leandra.
Their complaints include bad roads, sewage spillages, no waste collection and water and electricity problems.
Motorists from the Govan Mbeki municipal area raised their concerns over the state of the roads in the area.
The appalling condition of the roads in the area is a resounding complaint from motorists who have to regularly repair their vehicles.
They said they are digging deep into their pockets to maintain dents and damages caused by driving on the bad roads in these areas.
They claim that in the past five years the municipality has neither fixed nor maintained the roads.
The motorists said that they have given up that the municipality will ever attend to the road problems, though the subject always appears on the IDP.
Bethal motorists complained that their roads in town are even worse.
Mr Themba Masango, a local motorist, said driving on the gravel road in eMzinoni is better than the tar roads in town.
“The roads have been like this for more than 10 years.
“The municipality does not maintain the roads, that is why there are such big potholes.
“We are forced to buy new tyres every year, because they do not last on these roads.”
Mr Masango also claimed that he is forced to maintain and check his wheel alignment regularly.
Bad roads are also a common sight in eMbalenhle.
Residents maintain that the state of the roads put their lives in danger as ambulances, police vehicles and fire trucks cannot get to the area when they are needed.
Most of the streets are flooded with sewage spills. The eMbalenhle residents also complained about the constant power and water cuts in the area.
According to them, a new trend by the municipality is the non-collection of waste.
This promotes a culture of littering and pollutes the environment.
Ridge Times sent a set of questions on Wednesday, 9 October to the municipality about the deterioration of service delivery in the area, but at the time of going to print no comment was received.
