DURBAN - THERE were mixed feelings as residents rallied to fill potholes on Curry’s Post Road in the uMngeni Local Municipality earlier this week.
The ratepayers’ deed was shared on a number of social media posts. One of the posts was shared more than 17 000 times on Facebook and had numerous reactions and comments.
Ward councillor Hazel Lake said she had attended a meeting with Curry’s Post residents on Tuesday night.
“The residents are concerned that even if the road is patched, it’s deteriorating at such a rate… so they feel it needs a full resurface and the municipality cannot go for a full resurface, so they’re very unhappy,” said Lake.
“They are thinking about pursuing legal action.”
Curry’s Post Road runs from Howick through Curry’s Post to Nottingham Road.
Lake said the municipality planned on having a contractor on site, just for patching, by the end of the month.
She said the area had tourist establishments and coffee shops which now had a notable reduction in trade.
“It’s a full-on crisis and it has been for nearly two years,” said Lake.
“Once again the municipality is under-budgeted. They’ve budgeted R9.8 million for the roads in the entire municipality but it is going to be hopelessly inadequate because the infrastructure has not been maintained. You can hardly find a place where there isn’t serious potholes,” said Lake.
Municipal spokesperson Thando Mgaga said the municipality was in the process of finalising a plan to repair and revamp roads.
Mgaga said the municipality did pothole repairs as per its weekly schedule for such repairs. He said the delays were because of financial constraints.
“The assessment on which roads must be prioritised for urgent road resurfacing has been conducted and once processes have been finalised we will communicate through available platforms. The plan is expected to commence in the month of May up to the end of the financial year and well into the new financial year.”
Mgaga said they had one municipal team which did general pothole repairs but they needed contractors to become a pool that they could rely on when repairs needed to be done.
He said they used external service providers to complement the municipal team.
Daily News