Bay potholes so big ‘you can plant trees in them’

“We don’t try to stay on the roads when driving, we try to miss the potholes.”

This was the message from Ward 52 councillor Francois Greyling after confirming that there were 69 reported potholes in Despatch alone.

Last week, The Herald contacted 16 of the Bay’s 60 ward councillors to ask how many potholes had been noted.

The 16 councillors counted 424 between them, though some councillors said the number was higher as they were counting streets with potholes and not individual potholes.

According to them, some streets had three to four potholes each. Residents, too, were unhappy with the state of the Bay’s roads.

Lorna Wessels, 38, of Kabega Park, said: “The potholes between Fourth and Seventh avenues in Newton Park are horrific.

“Does the municipality not care or are they wasting our money on something else?”

Despatch resident Mike Steenkamp, 43, said he was very disappointed with the state of the roads, especially as cars were being damaged.

Chantelle Oelofse, 38, of Fairview, said the potholes were becoming bigger with no proper maintenance.

“You can plant trees in them,” she said.

While the municipality admitted there were serious issues when it came to the quality of materials and the manner in which potholes were filled, infrastructure and engineering political head Andile Lungisa said the municipality would be looking at using new technology to combat the problem.

The concerns over potholes even made it onto the agenda of last Thursday’s council meeting — which collapsed.

On the agenda was a matter concerning the use of an infrared road repair system.

Demonstrations of the proposed system were performed in June in Ward 57 but, according to the agenda, the success of the project could only be determined after sufficient cars had driven over the newly filled potholes.

The cost to the municipality, should the new system be adopted, was not revealed in the agenda.

Roads and transport portfolio head Rosie Daaminds said they hoped the number of potholes in the city would be reduced through the use of the new technology.

“We are concentrating mostly on the townships and that is why we started with our trial run in Motherwell. We have 34 SMMEs working on this and they are spread all over.”

Regarding the recent letter to acting city manager Nobuntu Mgogoshe in which National Treasury said it was giving the municipality two weeks to repay about R3bn it had received for the city’s IPTS bus system, Daaminds said she was concerned that roads and transport projects would be affected as a result.

“The project is going to be affected and that is why we will meet the acting city manager to ask what is going on.

“What is important is to write properly to Treasury and explain what is happening.”

Lungisa said the shortage of qualified engineers in the city meant potholes and other infrastructure-related problems would not be resolved in the short term.

A number of ward councillors said the pothole situation was very frustrating.

Ward 46 councillor Lindelwa Qukubana said there were at least 10 streets with potholes in his area, which includes parts of KwaNobuhle.

Ward 40 councillor Jason Grobbelaar said he reported 40 potholes at the end of September in his ward, which includes parts of Sherwood, Rocklands and Greenbushes.

While Ward 56, which includes parts of Motherwell, reported 10 streets with potholes in them, Uitenhage Central ward councillor Franay van de Linde said almost every second street in Ward 49 was riddled with potholes.

“The last estimate was roughly 50 and that is the backlog — not the new ones,” Van de Linde said.

Malabar and surrounds ward councillor Sharlene Davids said she had been begging the municipality to fix the roads in her ward.

Of the more than 100 potholes reported, 68 were not filled, with residents opting to fill them at their own expense.

With the help of “pothole spotters”, Ward 3 councillor David Hayselden said the Walmer area had more than 30 potholes.

“A lot of the potholes which were fixed months ago are now crumbling,” he said.

“Walmer township is the worst; there you can barely see the road — it’s just potholes.”

But it was not all doom and gloom. Andy Jordan, councillor for Ward 10, which includes parts of Schauderville, Gelvan Park and Parkside, said though there were roughly 15 to 20 potholes, the municipality had fixed a few last week.

“I have a list which I gave to a municipal official.

“Now we are waiting,” Jordan said.