Back behind the wheel

as well as acting deputy director-general for infrastructure Mzi Mafani.

The machinery will come handy for the troubled Enoch Mgijima municipality whose vehicles were auctioned last month after failing to pay a service provider. Engineering students helped prepare roads

Auctioned off were 18 trucks, 14 bakkies, two TLBs (tractor, loader, backhoes), a roller, a grader and 10 cars. This is the same area where violent service delivery protests resulted in the torching of a community hall last month.

Tolashe said they are busy crafting a solution which will “use clearing our Eskom bill and pay all service providers what is due to them. “With this machinery now and we have filled critical posts and so we have no excuse. We commit to do what is expected of us as a municipality,” said Tolashe. When Gcobani Gqabantshi, 55, first joined the departments of Roads as its fulltime technician 14 years ago, he knew all he had to do was properly maintain the roads network around Chris Hani region.

Trained as a mechanic, he spent the last seven years driving a grader – the plant machinery which he uses to regravel and fix potholes.

But Gqabantshi and his colleagues have not only lost valuable members of their Queenstown-based office, but the section was forced to operate using old machinery which broke down from time to time.

“This saw major roads maintenance jobs being outsourced to private companies while we were in office to do the job,” said Gqabantshi. It is now thanks to the newly formed department of Roads and Transport which purchased the much needed yellow fleet for all districts including Chris Hani.

“We have been at pains watching work that we could easily do at no extra cost, being outsourced. I don’t know when last I have been behind the wheel of grader,” he said.

The grader is part of several fleet of yellow vehicles which be used to re-gravel rural roads, and by fixing potholes.

But there remains a challenge at the office which has to service rural roads between Mbhashe and the Middleberg Cape. The office now only has two artisans and two foreman, to service the huge area under their jurisdiction. But Roads and Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana announced at the Queenstown launch that the purchasing of the machinery would be complemented by advertising of all the relevant positions which will make the plant not to gather dust.

“Such news are most welcome. We are happy indeed,” added Gqabantshi.