R579 road continues to be an eyesore
TAFELKOP/MONSTERLUS – The distasteful state of the road linking Tafelkop, Makaepea and Monsterlus outside Groblersdal within the Elias Motsoaledi Local Municipality continues to be an eyesore for residents in the areas.
The busy R579 road, which is a provincial one, has been in a bad state with huge potholes for years, making it nightmarish for users.
Residents in the area are livid that despite several of their calls to the authorities to attend to the matter, the road remains a disaster for users.
A number of fatal accidents were recorded on the road and residents blamed them on its bad state with gigantic potholes.
Seun Mogotji, Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA) leader, an opposition in Sekhukhune District Municipality council, described the state of the R579 provincial road linking Tafelkop, Makaepea and Monsterlus as a logistical nightmare.
Mogotji said it was an insult to road users to associate the R579, which has a potential to cause serious damage to vehicles, with a road.
“The road, which is an insult to call one, which ambulances and commuters are forced to use, has actually more potholes on it than a road can have. This makes driving not only dangerous but can result in fatalities, especially at night because there are no warning signs of the potholes. Ambulances carrying patients use the road and that in it can cause deaths of patients as they don’t pass there smoothly,” said Mogotji.
Mogotji said as the BPSA they questioned reasons the state of the road was allowed to deteriorate to the extent it was.
Malose Ramashala, United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP) Elias Motsoaledi Chairperson, said the situation on the R579 road was disappointing looking at the fact that there were councilors who were supposed to represent the people but those councilors neglected the responsibilities that people voted them into offices for.
Ramashala said that was an indication that the real needs of the people were not put first and the councilors had no interests of them at heart.
Attempts to get comment from the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure were not successful at the time of going to press.
Joel Seabi, Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure Spokesperson, acknowledged receipt of a query on the matter from the paper and said he had sent it over to the relevant office for a report. The response had not reached the paper on Tuesday afternoon.
The paper has reliably learnt that works on the closure of some of the many potholes on the road started on Tuesday after the paper sent a communiqué to the department on the bad state of the road on Monday.
