Residents fume as potholes are haphazardly ‘fixed’
Weltevredenpark residents are upset about the shoddy work of service providers.
Residents of Weltevredenpark are upset after they received poor service delivery from the municipality after waiting 17 months for a solution.
Anton Prins explained, “We had several potholes on the corner of Netball Street and Polo Avenue in Weltevredenpark for the past 17 months and were surprised when the council came to fix it last week.”
He continued stating that they were even more surprised when they inspected the finished project.
“The holes were previously filled with bricks and stones to try and save the vehicles driving over it. The time when it was eventually fixed by the council, the quality of work was deplorable. They did not cut the edges or even empty the holes of rubbish before filling it with tar. The job was done with such poor quality that there are still potholes that were not filled before they left,” exclaimed Prins.
Prins estimates that the tar covering the filled holes will not last until Christmas.
“If this quality work was done by my employees, I would discipline them or even let them go. We as ratepayers expect better. We demand better,” huffed Prins.
“As a community member and I think everyone else would like to know – one: why it takes 17 months for action, two: Why poor workmanship is accepted and who signed off on it, and three: who is ultimately responsible for this poor service and workmanship in management?” questioned Prins.
The Roodepoort Northsider has reached out to Joburg Roads Agency as well as ward councillor David Brand to find out more about the repair and who is to blame for the patchwork.
Bertha Peters-Scheepers from Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) stated, “JRA undertook the pothole repairs as a temporary safety measure until the road can be resurfaced as this is the remedial measure required.”
Brand commented, “JRA is slow to respond to service requests and has little depth to their planning. Typical examples are the 13 months it took JRA to do the reinstatement in Wilderbraam Street and the resurfacing of Landhuis Street which took close to 18 months to be attended to. There seems to be little or no supervision and quality checks on work carried out.”
