East Coast residents are fuming over the state of the Schafli Road along the popular Jikeleza route.
They say the road is poorly maintained and has caused accidents, leaving many drivers with mechanical service bills amounting to thousands of rands.
Last weekend alone, five vehicles, including a Mercedes ML, were damaged after hitting a deep pothole in the road. The Eastern Cape department of public works said funds were available and the road would be attended to.
Resident John Waterson said the road needed an urgent upgrade before innocent people were killed.
“From what I understand, the road was built in the 1930s and I doubt if it was ever upgraded after that. It’s riddled with potholes and it’s narrow,” said Waterson.
“All we need are skilled people who are educated and trained to do these roads. Every day there’s damage to someone’s car on this road.”
Darlene Nass of Glen Eden said the road was in such poor condition some people drove over the grass to avoid damaging tyres.
“Many people have complained about this to the municipality but without any help,” she said.
Public works spokesman Mphumzi Zuzile said the road was part of their surfaced roads network within the Buffalo City Metro.
“It does really need to be attended to. We have on a number of occasions used our in-house teams to do pothole filling and surface patching on the road as a holding action until more funding is made available for a full rehabilitation.
“Fortunately a team comprising a consultant and a contractor have already been appointed and will start working as soon as the health and safety plan is approved in about two weeks’ time,” said Zuzile.
He said a site handover would be done by the end of this month.
“Work is expected to start in May.”
However, resident Andile Blayi from Nondyilo village was skeptical.
“I grew up here and I have never seen any upgrading of the road. All I see is fed up residents who are fixing the potholes, nothing else.”
Waterson said the road was supposed to be East London’s prime tourist route.
“There are patches everywhere and look, the water is running on top of the same road instead of drainage underneath, why is that?
“There are even no road markings and at night it’s more dangerous.” — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
Schafli road nightmare for East Coast drivers
They say the road is poorly maintained and has caused accidents, leaving many drivers with mechanical service bills amounting to thousands of rands.
Last weekend alone, five vehicles, including a Mercedes ML, were damaged after hitting a deep pothole in the road. The Eastern Cape department of public works said funds were available and the road would be attended to.
Resident John Waterson said the road needed an urgent upgrade before innocent people were killed.
“From what I understand, the road was built in the 1930s and I doubt if it was ever upgraded after that. It’s riddled with potholes and it’s narrow,” said Waterson.
“All we need are skilled people who are educated and trained to do these roads. Every day there’s damage to someone’s car on this road.”
Darlene Nass of Glen Eden said the road was in such poor condition some people drove over the grass to avoid damaging tyres.
“Many people have complained about this to the municipality but without any help,” she said.
Public works spokesman Mphumzi Zuzile said the road was part of their surfaced roads network within the Buffalo City Metro.
“It does really need to be attended to. We have on a number of occasions used our in-house teams to do pothole filling and surface patching on the road as a holding action until more funding is made available for a full rehabilitation.
“Fortunately a team comprising a consultant and a contractor have already been appointed and will start working as soon as the health and safety plan is approved in about two weeks’ time,” said Zuzile.
He said a site handover would be done by the end of this month.
“Work is expected to start in May.”
However, resident Andile Blayi from Nondyilo village was skeptical.
“I grew up here and I have never seen any upgrading of the road. All I see is fed up residents who are fixing the potholes, nothing else.”
Waterson said the road was supposed to be East London’s prime tourist route.
“There are patches everywhere and look, the water is running on top of the same road instead of drainage underneath, why is that?
“There are even no road markings and at night it’s more dangerous.” — bonganif@dispatch.co.za
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