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Picture: Dumisani Sibeko

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• A death required to get traffic light

The Johannesburg Roads Agency has denied sending an e-mail to a former councillor implying that, in order to get a traffic light placed outside a school, someone would have to die.

The e-mail, in The Star’s possession, shocked parents and teachers at Fairways Primary School who wanted a traffic light near the school.

Children from Fairways Primary, situated next to Corlett Drive, use a pedestrian crossing over a busy road to access an adjacent playground.

Parents and teachers think it’s a disaster waiting to happen, and there have been two car accidents at the corner since the beginning of the year.

On Wednesday, The Star published the e-mail in which JRA representative William Mabotja allegedly told former ward councillor Ray Wolder what the solution was: “The cost to install a robot is +-R300 000. The robot that was installed on Corlett cnr Jacob (a few roads up from the school) was due to an old woman being hit by a car. This will be your solution.”

However, the JRA has released a statement saying Mabotja denies ever sending the e-mail.

“William has… denied to JRA that he ever typed that e-mail,” said JRA spokesman Thulani Makhubela.

The e-mail made its way to the school’s governing body, and eventually to David Silman, a director at the Ministry of Basic Education.

But Silman had confronted Mabotja about the e-mail earlier this week and Mabotja had acknowledged its existence.

“The aim of the e-mail below (referring to offending e-mail which was attached to the correspondence) was to give the info which councillor Ray Wolder needed from JRA,” Mabotja wrote.

Mabotja did not deny sending the offending e-mail or its contents, nor did he deny what he had said.

After an investigation, Mabotja said, the request for a traffic light would compete for funds with other similar requests. -The Star