The recent rains have been both a blessing and a curse. After the extreme heat, the environment, and the people and animals in it needed the rain, but the storms have also caused a plethora of damage.
Flooding, erosion, fallen trees, property damage, potholes, and broken street lights are just a few of the problems. While the relevant municipal entities are working to fix these issues, they also rely on residents to report them.
Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) has been dealing with an unprecedented number of fallen trees since the heavy rains began. JCPZ spokesperson, Jenny Moodley, has said that the entity is prioritising uprooted trees obstructing main routes, collapsed walls and damaged private properties. Moodley continued to say that the entity is appealing for patience as JCPZ works to remove all the uprooted trees. “We are working extremely hard to attend to all the calls, but at times, the intermittent rains make it difficult. Wherever possible, we are appealing to residents to assist with removing small branches on the roads that they come across so that we may focus on getting the larger obstructions removed before they cause more damage.”
Residents can report issues to JCPZ by sending a WhatsApp to 082 803 0748, with the full address, street corners, contact details and a photo. Alternatively, fallen trees and hanging branches can be reported to trees@jhbcityparks.com and general enquiries can be resolved through the Joburg Connect Call Centre number on 011 375 5555.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) has also been attending to several calls regarding a multitude of potholes, sinkholes, and issues with street lights. Subcontractors and SMMEs have been hired under JRA to deal with the backlog, but they need to be notified of potholes to be able to fix them. They are urging residents to log any road-related issues so the entity can be made aware of them and rectify them.
For street lights that are not working, residents are asked to send the name of the nearest street corner to the light, or preferably the nearest house number. If all the lights on a specific street are not working, residents are asked to include the street corners in their report. Ward 71 councillor, René Benjamin has notified the residents in her ward (Grobler Park, Davidsonville, Lindhaven, Princess and Witpoortjie) that the Urban Inspector is updating the pothole list to be forwarded to JRA, but the main assistance the ward needs is with identifying faulty street lights. Residents in this ward can report faulty streetlights to JRA or to René directly, through a WhatsApp to 073 734 0061.
To report an issue to JRA, faults can be logged in the following ways:
• On their website: www.jra.org.za
• Twitter: @MyJRA
• Facebook: @JohannesburgRoadsAgency
• Email: hotline@jra.org.za
• Call the customer contact centre: 0860 562 874
• The Find&Fix app: Take a photo of the issue on your phone, choose the nature of the issue on the app, and use GPS to send through the location of the issue
