RESIDENTS in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality in North West are tired of bad roads.
They said travelling became difficult when it rained as buses and taxis were unable to pick them up. One of the residents, Kgari Nong, said 18 villages do not have proper roads and when they approached the municipality, they were told the provincial government was responsible.
Kgari said roads such as Mmatau, Maremela, Sesobe and many others are gravel and have not been upgraded.
“We have tried numerous times to bring this matter to the relevant authorities, but nothing has been done,” said Kgari.
“Our provincial roads are predominantly gravel and have been neglected for far too long. In 2015, we heard that a R315 million budget was allocated to upgrade these provincial roads, but nothing has been done,” he said.
“What makes things worse is that the local Department of Public Works Roads and Transport office, which is supposed to maintain and service these roads, does not have even a single grader working to blade the roads.”
Another resident, Elias Tladi, said several residents miss going to work when it is rains.
“We live far from town and everything we need in our daily lives is in town. They tell us straight to our faces that provincial roads are the responsibility of the provincial government,” he said.
Acting Director in the Bojanala District, Gabriel Matau, said roads residents are complaining about are gravel.
“The road from Mmatau via Voordonder and Siga to Khayakhulu was supposed to be tarred years ago by head office but no feedback was given to us as to what happened,” Matau said.
“We only blade the roads, re-gravelling is done by head office. This road was last bladed in June before we got the breakdown of our grader. Since then, we haven’t bladed that road.”
