THE City of Joburg MMC for Transport Kenny Kunene went for an oversight visit in several parts of Soweto on Friday, 23 June.
The visit included the progress on the Protea Glen emergency stormwater improvements programme, a ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly completed Phiri stormwater upgrade project, and the much-awaited reopening of Klipspruit Valley Road following the completion of rehabilitation and construction.
The oversight visit started in Protea Glen extension 28, where they were installing the stormwater infrastructure.
It's alleged that the developers who built the community did not install stormwater infrastructure, which led to floods in the area.
“The people have suffered because of the greediness of a service provider, a private developer who doesn’t think for our people but profits,” said Kunene.
“We installed 3km of stormwater infrastructure, big pipes so that we can direct water underground when it rains,” he added.
They then proceeded to Phiri, where they installed stormwater pipes.
“We put out small pipes and installed big pipes so that when it’s a rainy season, we can mitigate flooding instead of the water going to people’s houses, water can flow underground,” added Kunene.
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Kunene officially opened the Klipspruit Valley Road, which had not been operating since 2021.
“There was a collapse of this road due to flooding. When I came to the City of Joburg in February, I said to the team, let us speed up the process because this road is inconveniencing the citizens of Soweto since they can’t use this road. I’m happy to announce that the road is officially opened,” he said.
Councilor Phelelani Sindani of Ward 135 in Protea Glen, told Daily Sun the water drainage programme in Protea is at 43% in progress.
“By December, the project should be complete. I am excited about this because we have had a problem for quite a while.
“Since 2017, Protea has been flooding, and nobody has come to our rescue until the MMC saw that we couldn’t live under such conditions,” said the councillor.
