Pretoria - Motorists in parts of Equestria have been warned of men deliberately damaging infrastructure, only to repair it again for tips.
According to a security guard at one of the complexes, who had seen the men damaging infrastructure at night, they sometimes messed up a recently fixed pothole.
The men’s modus operandi is simple: create the problem, encourage the reaction and then offer the solution, holding up placards that read: “I’d rather help you than go do the crime.”
Local councillor Jacqui Uys said this caused severe problems because the men did not repair the infrastructure to standard, which meant it caused long-term damage.
Some residents said they had seen the men damaging water pipes in Ouklipmuur Drive and Furrow Road and road signs on Cura Road.
But their speciality is potholes. This became apparent when a motorist on Furrow Road noticed numerous potholes.
Phiwo Sibanyoni, a resident in Equestria, said: “The standard cause of potholes is rain, and it hadn’t been raining, yet these holes appear everywhere.”
Uys appealed to residents not to give the people money and take photos of them and send them to her to approach the Tshwane metro to address the problem.
In Mamelodi East, the potholes on Mohwelere Road were not man-made, but motorists and taxi drivers continued to pay volunteers to fix potholes in the area because of the City of Tshwane’s alleged slow turnaround time.
Councillor Dorcas Maja said the budget to fix Mohwelere Road had been approved, and the project to restore the road would start in a few weeks.
“The good news with the road repair project is that it will create job opportunities for unemployed locals.”
Meanwhile, Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams said the City had a sustainable workflow process to ensure potholes were speedily fixed.
He said the metro was making progress, having produced 1 014 tonnes of hot asphalt, which have been used to fill approximately 6 779 potholes.
“Through the introduction of the weekly service delivery war room, we quickly introduced tracking to assess the performance of our service delivery teams so we can accelerate the repairs of roads in the municipality.
“The first area of intervention was confirming that the City had the necessary resources in place to ensure it can provide proper repairs to our road infrastructure.”
Williams said when he assumed office, he learned there was no suitable tender in place to ensure the City could procure bitumen to facilitate the production of hot asphalt.
“This became a core priority and was addressed and finalised during December 2020.
“Since then, our teams have been aggressively conducting road infrastructure maintenance across Tshwane.”
He said more work still needed to be done and the maintenance of road infrastructure was a critical foundation of core service delivery.
Pretoria News