Lawyer threatens class action suit against Mthatha over potholes
Mthatha lawyer Zincedile Tiya is threatening to institute a class-action suit against King Sabata Dalindyebo municipal bosses on behalf of residents whose vehicles are being pummelled to pieces by the collapsing road network.
Mthatha motorists are looking at their smashed rims and slashed tyres and wondering where R5bn spent on their roads and infrastructure in 2009 went.
Potholes riddle the city. Several motorists told the Dispatch they were spending thousands of hard-earned rands on repairing damaged tyres and rims, shock absorbers and fixing wheel alignment.
Tiya, 38, told the Dispatch that he had had three bad incidents with the city’s potholes.
His most recent accident left him fuming. He said he almost crashed into oncoming traffic while driving from Mthatha to court in Mqanduli on Friday.
“I think I was driving at 60km per hour when out of nowhere I hit a pothole. There were no warning signs and there was no way I could have seen it.
“I had two choices, either hit the pothole or veer into oncoming traffic and probably get myself killed.”
Two of his Chevrolet Aveo’s tyres were damaged. One of the rims had a huge crack in it.
He said the repairs cost R4,000.
His previous encounter with a municipal pothole was while driving his Mercedes-benz in Leeds Road towards the Mthatha magistrate’s court.
The crater caused a tyre to burst, costing him R4,000 to fix.
A similar incident happened to him when driving near the home affairs department along Mthatha’s Owen Street.
He said he wrote to the KSD municipality demanding compensation but never even got a response.
“I have even been forced to take two insurance policies for tyres from two different companies. I am fed up with KSD and one day I will sue them if they don’t fix the roads.”
KSD has said it has no money for repairs even though 90% of its entire 2,000km road network was beyond repair as most of it is more than 50 years old.
Municipal bosses say it would cost R1.2bn to renew the network.
On Monday, KSD TVET College marketing and communications manager Zigqibo Khahla told the Dispatch he had taken his car for wheel alignment in April, only to be told the shocking news that all four rims were damaged and the repair would cost R10,000.
Khahla, who lives in Northcrest suburb, said in the last few years he had spent R2,400 a year just on wheel alignment.
“We are spending a money. Even where I live lot’ it s of a huge risk to drive when it’s raining because we no longer have potholes, we have bathtubs.”
Phikolomzi Adonis, the leader of the KSD Concerned Citizens group which has been fighting KSD to allow citizens to buy electricity directly from Eskom, said his car ’ s brake sensors had been damaged after hitting a pothole earlier in 2021.
He had to pay R4,000 to get them fixed. He said he had spent R9,000 buying new tyres since 2018.
“Everywhere you go in KSD, the roads are just terrible. There is not one good street. You can’t use low-profile 17-inch or 15inch mag wheels in this town because of the potholes.”
Mthatha businessman and Eastern Cape Chamber of Business president Vuyisile Ntlabati, who previously warned that the decaying roads could drive away potential investors, said business owners were the hardest hit.
He blamed the situation on a lack of a maintenance plan by those in power.
“They [municipal authorities] wait until everything is damaged before fixing it instead of ensuring that roads are constantly maintained.”
He said car maintenance had also become exorbitant for those doing business in the town.
KSD municipal spokesperson Sonwabo Mampoza had not responded to questions sent to him on the matter at the time of writing on Monday.