Frustrated East London residents are reaching into their pockets and banding together to tackle the city’s persistent pothole problem.
Every weekend, a team of ratepayers repairs potholes on roads in Nahoon Valley Park, Abbotsford and Dorchester Heights.
They came together after giving up on waiting for the metro to fix the problem, which was worsened by the recent heavy rains.
The initiative was started by Charles Masfen, his son, Darryn, and Anthony Anley.
They were later joined by other residents with the same problems.
“We started in Bridle Path Road as Anthony and I live there,” Masfen said.
“Then people asked if we could continue and work on Abbotsford Main and Smythlands Roads to the causeway.
“We have completed Bridle Path Road and Wyse Avenue that leads to the N6.
“We are still busy with Smythlands as it is a lot of work and we work during the week so can only do it over weekends in our free time.
“Then we will start on Two Rivers Drive as it is also very bad. After that, we will look at the smaller side street.”
They started the initiative in October and have raised more than R14,000 for the repairs.
Another resident who is participating in the project, Sisipho Lunyawo, said instead of paying huge amounts of money to fix their cars, they decided to start fixing the potholes.
“We saw that it was better to act than pay to fix our cars.
“We are also trying to reduce the chances of accidents from burst tyres or forced collisions from dodging potholes.
“We took it upon ourselves to fix the roads ourselves. We are ratepayers who pay bills and taxes but we voluntarily donated money towards the initiative.
“We do this on Saturdays when everyone is at home to try to avoid interrupting workers and children who are going to school during the week.”
Lunyawo said the potholes were a great inconvenience in the neighbourhood.
“We can’t drive normally with potholes — this also delays people going to work or running our errands and even taking our children to school.
“It’s just something that’s not political and we are not doing it with the intention of being political.
“The whole of SA is complaining about potholes, East London is no exception.
“The mayor did speak about it and [repairs] being in the pipeline — we saw there was no action and decided to act,” he said.
Masfen said they were disappointed by the municipality’s failure to carry out repairs timeously.
“We couldn't wait for BCM any more.
“We kept on reporting the issue to our ward councillor, who is in charge of the ward [and] wasn’t getting back to us. This is damaging a lot of tyres.
“There’s been a lot of damage ... I’ve had to get my mags reconditioned four times because of the damage and had to replace about five tyres.”
Last week, the Buffalo City Metro started a major pothole-repair drive, starting with Buffalo Street, the North-East Expressway and Oxford Street, which officials said were the worst affected.
Metro spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said BCM had fixed more than 17,000 potholes and resurfaced several roads since the last financial year.
“It is not advisable for residents to interfere with public property like roads even though this might look like a good initiative, however should something tragic happen to a motorist or pedestrian, it can backfire with legal consequences,” Ngwenya said.
Ward councillor Nwabisa Mcwabeni applauded the residents for their hard work and confirmed that he had received numerous complaints about road conditions in the area.
“I commend those who took action and hope others will join in to help.
“I have also been affected by the poor road conditions and while I once volunteered to address this issue, I couldn’t cover all the potholes alone.
“Some things are beyond my control but I am grateful for the community’s efforts,” he said.
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