Staff reporter
Welkom – With festive season fast approaching, the traffic volumes are expected to increase and Free State becomes gate way for those transiting between provinces.
That said, Free State has the most dangerous roads, simply because the roads are not maintained and are potholed.
R103 between Warden and Vrede is one of the roads with high mortalities.
According to the department of Community Safety, Roads, and Transport there were 45 incidents reported in the past 5 years, reported!
This was in response to questions posed to Jabu “Ish” Mbalula by James Mokoena of the Democratic Alliance.
Leaked Internal Question Paper (IQP) paints a glaring picture of roads in Free State.
Mokoena asked Mbalula the below questions:
“In view of the dangerous condition of the road between Warden and Vrede:
- How many accidents have been reported on this road in the past five years up to the latest date
for which information is available? - How many fatalities have been recorded due to the accidents in each respective year up to the
latest date for which information is available? - What steps are being taken to deal with this serious situation in the (a) short term and (b) long
term? If no steps are being taken, why not?”
In response Mbalula said.
“1. A total of 45 incidents were reported, attributable to several causes including the presence of potholes. Some of these incidents have emanated from claims currently sub judicé and contribute to motorists
not adhering to the speed limit.
2 The Department is aware of two fatalities on the road under discussion
3(a) In the short term, the Department’s maintenance team is doing repairs on this road in collaboration
with the Central University of Technology.
3(b) The Department will consider and avail budget in the long term for rehabilitation of the road, bearing in mind its priority and condition at the network level.”
Apart from R26, another potholed road is R708 between Marquad and Clocolan, it’s a 39 km long which should take roughly 51 minutes but due to potholes, it can take hours.
Another deadly road that has been under construction for at least five years is a 50 km long between Kroonstad and Steynserus despite R271 million already spent.
Repairs started in 2019 and to date, the road is still under construction.
A resident from Steynserus said pregnant women opt against going to hospital in Kroonstad for Labour but rather give birth at home and only call an ambulance after deliver as the road is not roadworthy.
An ambulance over turned with a nine months old babe after hitting a pothole on N8 few years ago.
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Just before the ANC took over the country, all the roads were well maintained. There were no potholes like we have now.
Nobody in the municipality goes around checking the road condition in townships and in the cities. Even if they see a pothole thats small, it’s ignored until it looks like a small pool. By then many other potholes starts to emerge. The townships have it the worse.
Even worse are the condition of the pavements everywhere.
The question is what are we paying rates for.