Contact Me
Subscribe
Posts
Comments
Search
Followers
Blog Archive
- ► 2012 (246)
- ► 2011 (708)
- ► 2009 (882)
About Me
- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Free Staters gatvol about potholes
19:54 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
VILJOENSKROON. Volksblad newspaper journalist Johan Brits writes that Free State ratepayers are getting so angry about the great many life-threatening potholes puncturing their entire roads network now - that they have started fixing these themselves. They have also launched a signature campaign demanding that the Free State government urgently start fixing the roads network and one innovative Kroonstad resident has also launched a Facebook page. Campaign plans are growing to mount a mass protest car-procession to the local MEC sometime during April.
Kroonstad se Strate Is Moer Toe
Facebook also has just acquired a brand-new page on the subject with the ingenious title: “Kroonstad se Strate is Moer Toe’. (Kroonstad Streets streets have Gone to Hell is the closest I can get to translating this brilliant bit of Afrikaans colloquialism…).
Its founder Jaci Olivier Cronje writes : “I am sick and tired of driving through 200 potholes just to go to the local cafe’… http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Kroonstad+se+strate+is+moer+toe&init=quick#!/group.php?gid=280744716557&ref=search&sid=1026941238.1001575386..1
Mrs Debbie Shahim of Viljoenskroon – the Democratic Alliance councillor for the ‘Moqhaka’ municipality – Kroonstad, Viljoenskroon and Steynsrus – has also launched a campaign to have the pothole-crisis on the roads declared a national emergency. She demands that municipalities urgently start repairing all the roads in their jurisdiction – without delay. The taxi-associations of Bethlehem, Kroonstad and Bloemfontein as well as the agricultural lobby SA-Grains are all helping to get signatures together for a petition.
She plans to kick of the campaign against the potholes from a date in April which will be announced later. She urges the Free State ratepayers to take to the road together and drive enmasse to the office of the MEC for roads Mr Thabo Manyoni in Bloemfontein and had over their petition.
Ms Shahim’s suggestion has been received with an overwhelming response – after just two weeks she has already collected more than 7,000 signatures and said the Democratic Alliance was planning to turn this into a nationwide campaign.
It’s a nationwide crisis…
“Roads with huge potholes are not only a problem in the Free State but also countrywide. Potholes have far-reaching effects: they take lives. That’s unacceptable. Weak roads also create food-insecurity because farmers lose many thousands of Rands due to the damage to their vehicles while transporting agricultural products. And potholed roads also create a very bad image for the country especially with the many tens of thousands of foreign visitors expected for the WC2010 football tournament. “
- Indeed – a quick glance at our rapidly-growing Pothole Picture Album shows that it is a widespread and increasingly very dangerous problem: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&ref=search&gid=280744716557#!/album.php?aid=2046893&id=1026941238
- Read our latest report: http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/02/potholes-update-feb-8-2010.html
The DA’s provincial youth wing has also taken the petition to the University of Free State campus for a signature campaign. Shahim says especially the mining industry should put pressure on the minister of Transport to get the train goods-transport services back on track to get the heavy goods trucks off the roads: the often overloaded trucks are the main culprits of the current wholesale destruction of tarmac. And also she emphasised that ‘qualified people” must be appointed to start fixing the roads - ‘not just old Joe,’ she said. Miss Shahim can be phoned at telephone 082-375-9310 or emailed at jimjamd@lantic.net.
Volksblad reports that local ratepayers and farmers in the entire municipal area have started fixing up the potholes themselves at their own cost – even though they already also are paying rates to local municipalities for roads maintenance. And the Facebook page Kroonstad se Strate is Moer Toe is getting a huge influx of new members. - Volksblad http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/fc1eb84bda6244aeba9bfd6a1c7cd727/23-02-2010-05-52/Duisende_kan_opruk_om_oor_paaie_te_kla
R50 highway in Mpumalanga is one huge wasteland of potholes – picture on Feb 21 2010.
-------------------------------------
R1.37-billion European loan for “Cash-cow tollroads” - but they can’t ‘afford’ to fix potholes:
On July 17 last year – the good news was reported that the South African National Roads Agency had received a R1.37 billion loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) – earmarked to 'upgrade and extend two key toll roads in the north of the country" in time for the World Cup 2010 tournaments. The European Investment Bank’s Vice President Plutarchos Sakellaris said at the time that this moreover – was the third loan the Bank had signed with South Africa and noted that “the EIB is delighted to support the upgrade of key toll roads and that the project was “exactly in line with their objective of supporting economic growth in South Africa through the promotion of improved public infrastructure.'
The third EIB loan would be used to support the upgrade and widening of 30km of the R21 highway linking Pretoria and the Johannesburg International Airport, and to improve some 160km of the N17 highway between Springs and Ermelo -- the toll road which links Johannesburg and Swaziland.
The EIB claimed that the road enhancement schemes 'will bring significant safety benefits as a result of improved road alignment, the construction of emergency lanes and grade separated junctions.' It also said ' the project also has a strong social component as it will help to develop less advanced regions and create direct and indirect employment opportunities during the construction and management stages'. A lot of waffle – they still can’t repair the potholes – Sapa http://roadsafety.co.za/2009/07/17/sa-roads-agency-gets-a-huge-cash-injection/
POTHOLES COMBINED WITH VIOLENT CRIME - A LETHAL COMBINATION...
Another reason why potholes are so dangerous besides the many deadly and life-threatening crashes they cause, is the crime targetting vulnerable motorists - often people who stand still in traffic or stop to fix their cars, are attacked, frequently murdered. http://censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com/2010/02/potholes-update-feb-8-2010.html
Labels:
0 comments: