Makana Municipality Executive Mayor Nomhle Gaga was extremely critical at the state of Grahamstown roads during a special council meeting on Wednesday.
Makana Municipality Executive Mayor Nomhle Gaga was extremely critical at the state of Grahamstown roads during a special council meeting on Wednesday.
Gaga was adamant that action needed to be taken to repair the damaged roads. Municipal spokesperson Yoliswa Ramokolo today, 7 October, issued a statement saying the roads and streets in Makana have reached their design life span. Ramokolo said when it rains potholes appear everywhere.
As a result the municipality embarked on a pothole patching drive from today, focusing mainly on high-volume streets. Ramokolo said the municipality is aware that there are other low-volume streets that also require attention such as Miles Street, Struben Street, Portbury Road and several streets in Hlalani.
She said these low volume streets will be attended to, while work on the high volume streets continues. This programme started, today in Allen Street and will be completed in December.
In her opening statements in the council meeting on Wednesday Gaga said she was concerned about the state of the roads in Makana. Gaga said service level agreements with District Roads Engineer needed to be signed by next week to get the ball rolling on fixing the roads.
Gaga said the bad state of the roads contribute to the worsening image of the town, and called directors and councillors to act on service delivery issues. In the council meeting, the newly appointed mayor gave the impression that she was eager to turn things around in the embattled municipality.
Gaga spoke harshly against what she described as lawlessness in Makana. She said no staff members would be allowed to stand in front of the city hall doing nothing during working hours. "It's either people are in or out. We cannot tolerate lawlessness in this institution," she said. "The community needs to see that we are serious."
See the schedule for repairing potholes here: bit.ly/GrocSchedule
anele@grocotts.co.za
