Only 15 roads in Midrand will be maintained this financial year by City Parks

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04-04-2023
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Midrand Reporter
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Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe says, "I think that residents will have to cut their own pavements in future."

Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe says that residents may need to take matters into their own hands when it comes to cutting the grass in open areas and sidewalks until more clarity on the situation is received from Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo.

This means residents in and around Midrand will now have to dig deep into their pockets to pay for grass-cutting on municipal pavements.
Deppe said only 15 roads in Midrand will be maintained when it comes to grass cutting. Maple, Mane, Old, Lever roads and Le Roux Avenue are among the roads that will be maintained by City Parks and Zoo in this financial year. However, this did not go off well with one Halfway House resident, Logie Naidoo, who is a pensioner.

Naidoo said as a pensioner he was not able to afford to pay to cut municipal grass. “It is painful that we have to suffer so much in South Africa because people enrich themselves. How am I expected to get someone to cut grass on the pavement that belongs to the city? Yet we are expected to maintain it ourselves. It is not fair on many residents around Midrand,” said Naidoo.

Another resident, Mariaska Naidoo said, “The grass in Ward 132 is so overgrown in some streets. We can’t even see if there are oncoming cars. It poses a danger to many road users who use them on a daily basis.”

Regional manager of JCPZ in Region A, Joseph Ndou said, “The Integrated Development Planning (IDP) maintenance cycle which contains the daily schedule and progress reports accompanied by photographic evidence is posted on a group that all the councillors are part of. This is so that they can follow up on work being done in their ward.

“City Parks and Zoo only maintains road reserves when they have a framework order from JRA. To date, the region has not received any framework order.”

Ndou said the roads cut across various wards in the region including Lever, Harry Gaulan, Eighth, Summerset, Liebenberg road, Seventh, Garden, New and Walton roads.

The JRA acknowledged our query and assured us that we would receive a response by March 24 after a meeting with City Parks. According to a response from City Parks and Zoo’s Jenny Moodley, all servitudes and sidewalks in the city fall under the purview of JRA and referred us back to the road agency.

Questions emailed to the JRA hit the ball right back into JCPZ’s court claiming that they were ‘specialists’ in the field of grass cutting, not the JRA. The added concern is that all maintenance and tree

planting requests require, JRA wayleave approval. Again reinforcing that servitudes are a JRA responsibility.

In response to JRA’s claim that sidewalks were the responsibility of JCPZ, Jenny Moodley, GM: Stakeholders and Public Relations responded: ‘… please be advised that all verges and sidewalks are designated roads servitudes and therefore the budget to maintain these areas does not sit with Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, but is ring fenced within the Johannesburg Roads Agency’s budget. City Parks has been allocated a budget for parks, conservation areas, street trees and cemeteries. No budget has been allocated sidewalks.’