Summit focuses on fixing roads in RNM
"While preparing for the summit, the recent heavy rains severely affected most of the municipality's roads."
When Ugu District Municipality fixes a burst pipe on the road, it digs up the road and leaves it without reinstating it.
And if the district municipality does try to reinstate it, it does not do it properly. This was revealed by Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (RNM) municipal manager, Max Mbili during the RNM Road Infrastructure Summit held at the Port Shepstone Civic Centre on June 23 and 24.
Mbili said during previous engagements with Ugu a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed which stated that if the district municipality digs up a road, it must let RNM know in advance, and both municipalities need to agree on the turn-around time on the reinstatement of the road.
“The same goes with Eskom when it fixes electricity cables, it digs up the road and does not reinstate it to its former state,” said Mbili. He added that the municipality has also designed pamphlets for ratepayers to guide them about the patching of potholes that need urgent intervention.
Meanwhile, RNM mayor Sikhumbuzo Mqadi told Fever that in Margate, potholes were being fixed just before the summit.
Mqadi said the municipality decided to host the Road Infrastructure Summit after the strategic planning session it held as the council in February. He said council agreed that the municipality needed to come up with a master plan that will identify roads that need immediate attention.
He added that while preparing for the summit, the recent heavy rains severely affected most of the municipality’s roads.
“Now we know all the roads that need urgent attention and those that are damaged. During the summit, we had different stakeholders such as the Department of Transport (DOT), South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL), Ratepayers Associations, and taxi industry representatives. These stakeholders told us about the plans to fix roads moving forward. SANRAL shared how it will go about fixing the N2 in Port Edward. The KZN DOT also committed that it will work with us hand in glove to fix our roads,” said Mqadi.
He added that as part of the summit they also inspected Nelson Mandela Drive which is currently under rehabilitation. The mayor said the rehabilitation also includes Main Harding Road, saying that the cost of the road upgrades is over R90 million.
Also, Mqadi said working with DOT and other stakeholders, it set aside over R550 million for the upgrading of the Port Shepstone rank, to make it bigger and an intermodal facility.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Fever’s Facebook page
