Craters engulf parking bays Two die in fatal R81 crash

■ Roelof de Jonge

When the Greater Tzaneen Municipality spends R850 000 on a three day strategic planning session for their councilors and managers at a luxury holiday resort in Mpumalanga, one would expect that at least the basics at their own house was in order. Especially when infrastructure, something as simple as a parking space in the central business district (CBD) that represents a public swimming pool, deteriorate right under the noses of these council leaders. This damaged parking bay (pictured), caused mostly by storm water from the past months’ rainfall, was noticed by the Bulletin at the beginning of January this year (2023). This parking spot is situated on the corner of Peace and Skirving Streets where a host of businesses are located.

Bulletin again visited the area this week, Wednesday the 1st of February, to see if the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) perhaps have fixed it since it was first noticed. The parking lot has degraded even further and is no longer fit for any vehicle to utilize. Speaking to a couple of business owners and managers in the vicinity, Bulletin has learnt that the surface of this parking bay started falling apart as far back as October last year. And that none of these businesses reported the matter to the municipality and pressured GTM to do something about the damage.

It is also astounding that none of the employees at the GTM noticed this massive gaping hole situated on route to the Whitehouse. We sent the details of this crater to the GTM’s communications director, Neville Ndlala, for comment and a plan forward, but at the time of going to print, we had not received any feedback.

Furthermore, on the burst waterpipe in King Edward Drive which has been temporarily fixed by the GTM and cordoned off with barrier tape so that motorists don’t drive into it; residents living close to the damaged pipe, said the pipe burst about three weeks ago and has not been tended to since.

Perhaps the way things work, is that the community pay for road inspection teams to find and repair potholes, clean stormwater drains and check for damaged curbstones, but then have to report these tyre-eating traps to the inspection team, to allow them to inspect and repair.

We will have an update on this matter in our next edition.

■ Roelof de Jonge

The T-junction at Mooketsi on the R81 route linking the Gyiani road to that of Modjadjiskloof and Polokwane, claimed the lives of two people and left one with critical injuries on Friday morning the 27th of January.

According to Ronald Matjiakgang, the site manager from Vea Road Maintenance and Civils, the driver of a German luxury sedan failed to stop at the stop sign and entered the road unsafely.

Vea Road Maintenance and Civils is a contracting firm doing maintenance work for the South African National Roads Agency SOC (SANRAL) on the R81 and

R36 roads.

A truck with a trailer travelling from the direction of Polokwane towards Modjadjiskloof which had the right of way, had no chance of avoiding the luxury sedan that suddenly appeared in its path. The driver of the truck was not injured, but clearly shocked afte the accident.

“Consultants are currently looking at several solutions to present to our client, SANRAL, that will help to prevent such accidents from happening again,” said Matjiakgang. “We had several accidents along the R81 route and towards Segopo village, but Friday’s fatal accident was the first this year at that particular intersection.”

Bystanders who witnessed the horrific accident as well as established residents and business owners in the area said they have pleaded with authorities to either erect traffic lights or a circle, similar to those in Mankweng and closer to Polokwane on the R71 route, which will help prevent such fatalities from occurring again. The question though, if a stop sign cannot even prevent a driver of a vehicle from coming to a complete stop, would a traffic light or a circle be more effective? And is it not time for road users to be rather more considerate towards other road users and to actually start obeying the road rules?

Aqua sinkhole finally fixed

Aqua Avenue which connects the bottom end of Aqua Park to the turn at Jetty 3 is one of the most travelled routes in town. In fact, it turns into Annecke Street which runs all the way past Golden Acres and Heritage to connect to the R71. The retirement village, Macadamia is situated at the T-junction between Aqua Avenue and Alan Burman Street.

It is here, at this intersection that the road started to sink. Bulletin was informed about this unfortunate event at the start of December last year and we have watched this gradually sink deeper and deeper until eventually the indentation was so severe that vehicles used the opposite lane to traverse the intersection for fear of damaging their suspension.

The matter was reported on, and the public reported it to the municipality. Yet, despite this, and despite the best efforts by the ward councilors, nothing was done to rectify the problem. This de- spite most of the top management and councilors at the GTM residing along this road.

This week Bulletin paid another visit to the site and we were pleasantly greeted by the site of the GTM roads maintenance team hard at work repairing the road. Foreman Leslie had already removed the old road surface with a front-end loader. According to him, they make use of a cold tar process to fix the road permanently. He said the cold tar mixture also sets much faster than the traditional hot tar which enabled them to do repairs much faster and more efficiently. He also said that cold tar is more user friendly in all weather conditions.

“Like when it rains now, with hot tar there is no option but to wait until it is dry before we can continue. But with this cold mix we can finish the repairs the same day, even if it rains.”

After the team spread the fresh cold tar evenly over the gaping hole in the road, one of the workers flattened the surface with a roller to ensure an even surface. Leslie said this repair will certainly last the distance it is required to do.