Fed up residents from the small holdings north of Pretoria have started fixing their own roads.
Yesterday, Karneels Smit and his brother Francios were on Coin Road with a small team of workers to repair one of the many potholes in the area.
Smit, whose father was a livestock farmer, said they had no choice but to jump in and start repairing the road. “The roads impact our business,” he said.
“Our clients moan that they can’t get to us. We also have elderly people in our area with small cars [and they] can’t drive through the water when the roads flood.”
Half a metre deep
Smit said some of the holes were half a metre deep.
“There have been three bakkies stuck in there and look at the bumpers or car parts on the side of the road of cars we have dragged out,” he said.
Smit said they used feed bags filled with sand to fill up the big holes in the road. “We level out the road and add rocks over it before we fill it up with soil again and level it again,” he explained.
“We have reached out to the City [of Tshwane] about the roads and we also notified them that we will be repairing the roads, so they are welcome to come help,” he added.
Smit said after they started repairing the roads earlier this week, other residents brought their workers to help with repairs. Another resident stopped and dropped off cold drinks for the workers.
“We are so grateful they are fixing the roads, we have to contribute, even if it was a cold drink,” he said. The resident said he had damaged his Volkswagen Polo in one of the holes this year.
Lusthof Landowners’ Association media coordinator Johan Loots said Coin Road and Apies River Road were the most damaged in the area.
“Apies River Road is more holes than road,” Loots said. “People have made a road to drive on the sand next to the tar road.”
Loots said when it rained, residents had to use back roads to get to the city, which added 20 minutes to the drive.
“We are also in the field burning season and to react to field fires, you have to be swift – and that is impossible on these roads.”
Loots said the roads were so damaged that emergency vehicles, ambulances and fire trucks couldn’t drive on them.
“The neighbourhood watch also has to be careful when patrolling at night or reacting to an emergency because you need to remember where these potholes are,” he explained.
Lusthof Landowners’ Association treasurer Carika Lemmer said they had recently had a medical emergency with a resident who had blood clots.
“It was a risk to move the man on these roads,” she said. Lemmer said the bad state of the roads put residents’ lives at risk, or could mean the difference between life and death.
“We are fed up,” she said. “I’ve been asking the city for help for a year now but I’m still waiting for a real solution.”
Lemmer said some residents had resorted to filling Coke bottles with sand to fill up the holes in the road.
“It worked, the road drove better with the bottles in but they washed away with the floods again,” she said.
The City of Tshwane has yet to comment.
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