Yesterday, I visited residents in Bronkhorstspruit to see first-hand the appalling condition of roads that have been neglected by the City of Tshwane for years.
What I saw was not simply a case of potholes or poor road maintenance. It was a clear example of how municipal failure is disrupting livelihoods, damaging local businesses and forcing residents to pay for services that should be provided by the City.
One resident told us that she has spent approximately R160,000 of her own money resurfacing roads around her farm because the City has failed to maintain them.
These roads are regularly used by the City’s sewage vehicles travelling to the sewage plant next to her property. The resident says the City previously scraped the roads approximately twice a month. That maintenance has now stopped, and she estimates that the City has not properly maintained these roads for more than six years.
The consequences are predictable. When it rains, municipal sewage vehicles become stuck on the roads. The resident is then forced to assist by towing municipal vehicles out. At the same time, trucks transporting farmers’ goods struggle, or are unable, to access the farms, preventing residents from getting their products to market and putting their businesses at risk.
This is what happens when a municipality stops maintaining basic infrastructure. The consequences do not remain on a spreadsheet in Tshwane House. They reach directly into the pockets of residents and farmers.
What makes this even more unacceptable is that the resident says she attempted to obtain permission from the City before resurfacing the road herself.
When the City failed to provide the necessary assistance or approval, she was left with an impossible choice: allow the road to deteriorate further and jeopardise her livelihood, or spend her own money fixing infrastructure that the municipality should have been maintaining.
A resident should not have to spend R160,000 doing the City’s job.
The state of these roads is symptomatic of a broader failure of governance in Bronkhorstspruit. Rural communities are too often treated as an afterthought, despite paying rates and taxes and relying on the same municipality for basic services.
As outlined in our Manifesto, if I am elected I will ensure that our municipality actually maintains its infrastructure. National Treasury has set a benchmark for municipalities to spend at least 8 percent of the value of their assets on repairs and maintenance – yet most fall well short of this. Under my leadership, Tshwane will comply with this standard. I further commit to ensuring that council approves cost-reflective tariffs and structurally funded budgets to secure long-term infrastructure investment.
As the DA’s mayoral candidate for Tshwane, I will continue exposing these failures and fighting for a municipality that maintains its infrastructure, responds to residents and supports, rather than obstructs, local economic activity.
Tshwane’s residents deserve better than a municipality that only arrives after infrastructure has collapsed.
We need to fix the roads, restore basic maintenance and make Tshwane work for every resident, including the communities of Bronkhorstspruit.