MMC: Transport, City of Johannesburg, Cllr Funzela Ngobeni is pleased to announce that the A Re Sebetseng Blitz in Region E has put a serious dent in the City’s roads service query backlog, beginning a long process of improving the condition of the City’s road infrastructure.
While the initiative has not resolved all the queries raised by frustrated residents over many months, in areas such as Alexandra and Sandton, teams of Joburg Roads Agency general workers from all over Johannesburg managed to fill and repair almost 3 000 potholes and deep patches in a week.
Since A Re Sebetseng began on the week of the 14th and 18th of February, the City has managed to roll back the service query backlog, including:
- Filling 1 496 potholes
- Repairing 1 311 deep road patches
- Unblocking 293 blocked Kerb Inlets (KIs) and Pipes
- Sealing 650 cracks on some roads
- Re-filling 236 reinstatements and
- Fixing or installing 115 guardrails
In addition to this work, the roads agency applied asphalt overlay on a number of roads in Alexandra and Kramerville and laid new road markings.
With the amount of work done in the first week, I am hopeful that residents will begin to see a drastic improvement in the state of our road infrastructure as we roll out A Re Sebetseng Blitz campaigns across the City.
Further to that, I am positive that turnaround times for calls logged will improve significantly following a decision to re-call all JRA employees, especially general workers stationed at the City’s depots, to work on a full-time basis.
For a significant period, as a result of Covid-19 regulations, JRA was compelled to undertake extensive road repairs and maintenance work with only two-thirds of its workforce at any given time.
Again, I plead with residents of the City to bear with us as we begin rolling back months of service requests backlogs. It will not be easy but with your cooperation and adequate allocation of resources, the City will provide visible service delivery.
Finally, I take this moment to pay tribute to the teams of JRA, Joburg Water and Joburg City Parks and Zoo employees who ensured a successful blitz campaign.
I also thank Executive Mayor, Mpho Phalatse as well as MMCs Michael Sun and Ronald Harris, Environment and Infrastructure Services and Community Development, respectively, for their political support.