25-05-2025
Rural residents fund road repairs as Polokwane Muni fails to act
POLOKWANE – The gravel roads in the Polokwane municipal area have now fallen into such a state of disrepair that residents have abandoned all hope of any support from the local authority, and attend to do the most urgent maintenance at their own cost.
Polokwane Observer recently accompanied Ward 23 councillor, Roelof Lourens to the Soetdorings and Doornbult smallholdings and found that the gravel roads had not been graded for years, making it inaccessible for residents, in particular during the rainy season.
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A local resident, Ricolette von Benecke, confirmed that the matter has been raised with the municipality at various levels, but to no avail.
'We are now using our own labour and resources to attend to the places where motorists can't even drive their children to school or reach medical care in case of emergencies,' she said.
During the visit, Von Benecke was seen supervising workers loading material to cover manholes in ZN and ZM streets in Soetdorings.
'The residents are contributing by providing wages for the workers, equipment and fuel,' she added and confirmed that roughly R24 000 has been spent on road ZJ during February this year while residents had to continue paying rates and taxes to the municipality.
After the rains in late January and February this year, some residents could not exit their properties and children consequently could not be taken to school. Even tractors got stuck on road ZB.
According to Lourens, the matter has been raised with the municipality's manager of roads and stormwater, Pilot Ramothwala who they invited to a meeting on site.
He, however, did not honour the invitation. Numerous follow-ups were made, they said, with no result.
'It appears that the municipality only utilises its so-called yellow fleet to do quick window dressing before a funeral or a visit from a high-ranking politician and sees no priority in attending to our gravel roads,' another resident said.
At places in the city where municipal labourers were found, it was apparent that there was a lack economical utilisation of resources, with one worker half-heartedly grafting while 10 are supervising.
Polokwane Observer raised the matter with the municipality six months ago and requested a works programme relating to maintenance of gravel roads in the rural areas, but no response was received after repeated reminders.
The municipality was also requested to provide a list of all the gravel roads in the municipal area as well as a schedule of repairs done, but it appears that such information is not available.
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