Komati Road long overdue

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28-02-2024
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Lowvelder
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At night it is impossible to tell where the road margins are

The Nkomazi Local Municipality (NLM) are yet to comment on enquiries concerning the dangerous entrance road to the town of Komatipoort.

Corridor Gazette recently aired some serious concerns about the inability of this important service road into town to accommodate the amount of traffic flowing to and from town. This follows after yet another accident after dark, when this practically unmarked and unlit stretch of road holds much danger.

The local Komatipoort Chamber had in the past gone a long way to formally request permission from the municipality to ask local suppliers to introduce cat eyes in this very same street, from own sources or donations, and it was refused. This was in 2018 when the council undertook to handle the matter, as well as other burning road issues in the town.

Two chamber members, Johan O’Reilly and Jan Engelbrecht, who is also the chairperson, has since reacted on enquiries received from the newspaper.

They confirmed the municipality reaction on the chamber’s plea and its suggestions to rehabilitate the road, as well as the fact that the municipality indicated that they will rectify the matter itself.

During this meeting in the mayoral boardroom, after an integrated development planning (IDP) meeting in November 2018, Engelbrecht and O’Reilly stated that the painting of this road is not enough. Cat eyes in the centre and along the margins are critically needed. A few weeks after that meeting, paint was applied, and like it had been advised, did not last long until it started fading away. Nor was it maintained.

At night it is impossible to tell where the road and the road margins are. All is dark in front of your windscreen.

Streetlights are also desperately needed along this road.

“How can it not be concluded that the failure of the municipality to mark this road well, is the cause of weak visibility of the road, and how is it not this public institution that is to be blamed for this accident?” the chamber asked.

According to Engelbrecht and O’Reilly, NLM then also promised the local business and owners quarterly meetings, where the IDP manager presided, to be sure all matters are entertained and kept up to date. These meetings have not realised at all. “We asked for them, since it offers opportunity to voice concerns, but the municipal PA could not secure any more such meetings.

“More matters promised have not realised to date. These include inexpensive matters like signage to be obtained and introduced at the low-water bridge; also these have not been done. In Komatipoort the road surfaces are deteriorating and it is only after several notifications and videos passed on, by private sector to the municipal management, that a form of action is taken by the municipality.”

Bourhill Street is totally demolished. Louw Street and Koedoe Street have huge holes like dams, more potholes than surface. Crocodile Street, the same. Where Rietbok branches off from Gilfillan, no tar surface is left. Wildebees Street is almost totally destroyed and patching up is no longer a solution.

A meeting of all Komatipoort residents and owners of land and/or businesses is planned in February. The chamber hopes that municipality shows more interest by then, and may commission some activities, as the chamber’s plan is to commission remedial actions from the local private sector to prevent further collapse of infrastructure.