BETHAL – From the moment you enter Bethal, almost every road is in need of serious upgrading due to the uncountable number of potholes.
Residents have had enough of the poor road conditions and say Govan Mbeki Municipality have failed them as a community.
Attempts by the community and AfriForum to patch these roads, are just not enough, as there are too many holes that is in need of closing up.
AfriForum is doing the best they can when accommodating temporary solutions by putting gravel in these holes, but they themselves face a battle of not having enough money or sponsors to do the whole town.
“Gravel is a temporary solution, there are however plans in motion to fill potholes with tar, but we do not have enough funds to do the entire town. There is a planned project for the CBD in association with BPPA (Bethal Business and Property Association).”
“Furthermore, we will also do a project in the residential areas as soon as stock is already ordered,”said Mr Hennie Bekker, District Coordinator: Lowveld District AfriForum.
Mr Bekker said their biggest problem is community involvement. There is a small number of community momentum builders, but not nearly enough.
“I do believe that if matters get worse, the community will have no other choice than to get involved in whatever way possible,” said Mr Bekker.
He went on further saying that if each home owner takes responsibility for not only potholes in front of their property, but also their verges, Bethal would be a place to be proud of again.
AfriForum is said to have spent over R300 000 since 2017 in Bethal alone by fixing potholes.
An estimated cost on fixing the entire Bethal is almost impossible to provide due to the serious extent of poor road conditions.
The huge amount of heavy duty trucks contribute to the poor road conditions. Trucks can been seen driving through residential areas. More stricter diversion of these heavy duty vehicles is needed to help alleviate the problem.
At the time of going to press, the spokesmen in the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s communications department had not yet responded to an email sent on Wednesday, 11 March.
