Pretoria - The potholed roads in many parts of Tshwane were left to deteriorate for eight months due to problems related to the awarding of a tender to a contractor.
The contractor was found wanting after failing to deliver bitumen material required for manufacturing hot mix asphalt, which is used for repairing potholes.
This emerged on Friday during a radio interview with mayor Randall Williams, who identified the source of the problem of the pothole-riddled roads as a "middle man" who had failed to honour the contract.
"No potholes were filled for eight months because what happened was that the tender was given to a middle man to provide bitumen that you need to manufacture asphalt. That middle man never delivered asphalt and no potholes were filled either," Williams said.
This happened when the metro was under administration and managed by a team of administrators. Williams, however, said he had turned around the situation since he assumed office in November.
Recently, the City decided to cut out the middle man and appoint a new contractor, who happened to be the manufacturer of bitumen.
Williams said: "As far as the potholes are concerned, two days ago (last Wednesday) we appointed a new service provider, and this time the service provider was not a middle man. The service provider is in fact a company that manufactures the bitumen."
He said the company had already delivered the bitumen to the municipality and that the repair of potholes was under way.
"The City owned a quarry for manufacturing the hot asphalt and two days ago, for the first time in more than eight months, hot asphalt was manufactured," Williams said.
There was an outcry among residents recently over tall grass, especially in the graveyards, which had not been cut for some time.
Williams said: "When I got to office on November 1 last year, I found out that no tender existed for grass-cutting."
He said that since he had been in office, he had fast-tracked the grass-cutting tender and that work had started.
Pretoria News