Tour highlights poor maintenance

With the Mogalakwena municipal
manager, William Kekana, back in office, the tour of the town that has become an institution between the municipality and the local business chamber seems to be back on track.
During this monthly excursion,
municipal officials accompany business chamber management members on a drive-around which allows business
leaders to highlight some of the municipal maintenance and enforcement issues that impact on the well-being of
residents and business people.
Some of the issues highlighted during this month’s tour included informal
dwellings in the industrial area, particularly at the Alert Steel building and also in Sussex and Simmentaler Streets. 
Owners of industrial premises in the area are concerned that these structures may serve as places where thieves and burglars can hide their loot to retrieve it at a later stage.
The municipality was requested to remove these illegal structures,
The issue of hawkers once again came under discussion during this month’s tour. To emphasise its point the business chamber presented the municipal manager with a copy of the by-law governing hawkers in town.
“We understand the problem with
political parties and the [upcoming]
election but would like to have a solution to this problem,” the chamber said in a press release.
The MM proposed a stakeholders workshop which should be attended by the municipality, chamber of commerce, counsellors and hawkers. This workshop is to be arranged by the local municipa-lity, to address this problem.
Other issues that were identified were:
- Potholes and damaged road surfaces as well as damaged pavements.
- Long grass obscuring the view of
oncoming traffic and the stop sign at the corner of Pretorius and Hamer streets.
- Repair work to storm water drainage at the corner of Bonsmara and Sussex Streets was of a poor standard and badly done.
- There is no indication that there is a temporary 3-way stop at the new crossing of Dudu Madisha (South and North) and De Klerk Streets.
- Open manholes remain a problem and pose a safety risk to pedestrians. The pavement in Schoeman Street is also very untidy and needs to be cleaned.
- It was pointed out that there are lots of termites in the roof of the public swimming pool building that could weaken the structure to the extent that it may pose a danger to people. The chamber also requested
personnel to turn lights at these buildings off during daytime. 
- The situation in Fourie Street is
unchanged – there are still lots of grass and Sekelbos growing on the pavement and tar and damages the road surface.
- Some speed humps in HF Verwoerd Street are still too high and cause damage to cars. There is still no warning signs or reflectors at any of the speed humps in town.
- Leaking water and sewage pipes are problematic and repairs to these leaks are not done properly. It is also a problem that contractors do not restore the road and pavement surfaces properly after they have done repair work to pipes and drains.
On the positive side the chamber
commended the municipality that the traffic flow is much better at the corner of Retief and Dudu Madisha Streets since the road signs were changed.