Community repairs damaged roads

By Masilo Malakwane

QWAQWA – Maluti-A-Phofung local municipality residents took it upon themselves to repair shoddy roads within their respective areas.

This publication took to the streets to engage them and take a few pictures of the dire state of municipality roads, and will share some of the hard work community members did on the roads.

The pictures show groups of residents in different busy streets  such as Leribe area in Monontsha village, Bolata No4, Motebang street near Riverside, Mampoi street near Elite and Lusaka complex, to name a few, where they started fixing pothole-riddled roads in their communities using their own resources.

One resident who was patching the potholes in Bolata No4, Kopano Mokoena said   some community members gave them money, while others donated tools like rakes, wheelbarrows, spades and buckets to collect soil.

 “We are unemployed so we come here to fill in the potholes to make our village is a better place. This is one of the busiest roads,” Kopane said.

Another frequent user of the Lusaka and Qholaqhwe road who wished not be named, said: “The government seemed to have turned a blind eye in maintaining roads in QwaQwa. Taxis have to endure these potholed roads to ferry us to our respective destinations every day. What about the cars,” she said.

We also caught up with a group of seven men in Leribe village on the outskirts of Monontsha. This group  decided to roll up their sleeves to try and fix their 625 metre main gravel road leading into their village.

According to their spokesperson, Victor Phakathi, they decided to take matters into their own hands because their pleas for this gravel road to be fixed had fallen on deaf ears.

“We decided as residents of Leribe area  to take matters into our own hands since we the ones feeling the  brunt when having funerals or family functions, as our families’ vehicles struggle to drive through and people are forced to leave their cars far away from our homes,” said Phakathi.

Meanwhile, Maluti-a-phofung Business and Community Development Association (MAP-BCDA) issued a statement requesting   a    meeting  with  the  municipality  this week, to address  the  community’s increasing frustrations with the poor condition of MAP roads.  

It’s chairperson, Nelson Moekoa mentioned in the statement that  the  amount  of  money  that  Maluti  a  Phofung  motorists and  businesses  contribute  to  the  country’s fiscus  is  enough  to  be  able  to  keep  their  current  roads  maintained  and new  roads  built  on  a  five-year  contribution  by  the  state.

“Our request  to  the  provincial  and  national  governments  is  that  they  should  subsidize  the municipality  with  40%  of  their  past  five  years’  contributions,  as  we  will  continue  contributing  for  the  next  eight years  until  such  a  request  will  be  made  again.”

Spokesperson of Maluti-A-phofung local municipality Thabo Kessah said plan are on the pipeline to address the challenges.

“Map will submit a business plan/proposal to Infrastructure SA to upgrade roads to the value of R1 billion.The business plan is almost  complete and will be submitted to infrastructure SA on Friday May 27,2022.

The municipality is in the process of procuring material for pothole repairs as this is the right time to deal with them considering the wet conditions we have experienced for better part of the last 6 to 8 months,”Kessah explained.