Plan to fix road surfaces, holes

VARIOUS interventions have been made to address the legacy of poor administration and delivery by the previous regime, and our bitter past in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

The new budget passed just recently was compiled in conjunction with ratepayers and consumers as well as the business fraternity.

The extensive engagement with the stakeholders has seen a very progressive, pro-poor, pro-delivery budget.

The recent drought, and the ailing infrastructure maintenance backlog due to burst pipes and leaks have caused numerous open cavities where the waterworks staff had repaired sub-soil pipes on verges and in the roads.

These cavities are filled after a few days to ensure that the leaks have been successfully repaired to avoid the area leaking after back-filling has been done.

Unfortunately poor planning from the previous administration’s budget has caused an enormous backlog of filling of these gaping holes and damaged roads.

After consultation with the member of the mayoral committee for infrastructure and engineering and her team it was mentioned that the work had been outsourced to support the endeavour to have the holes filled and the roads patched or resurfaced, starting last week.

Approximately one third of the budget has been allocated to the Despatch and Uitenhage area to expedite delivery and to pick up the slack caused with respect to delivery to these communities who have been neglected by the previous administrations.

The DA-led coalition government strives to have a responsive government that cares for and reacts to our residents.

We encourage all sectors of our metro to communicate with us to enable us to deliver the services which you rightly deserve and pay for.

Please log all concerns or municipal issues to the toll-free call centre number, 080-020-5050 (free from cellular and landline phones).

Francois Greyling, councillor for Ward 52, Despatch