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This morning, I held a meeting with the Office of the Executive Mayor over transversal issues affecting the ability of the JRA to carry out crucial road repair and maintenance work without hindrance.

Today’s meeting follows one-on-one engagements with several departments and entities whose service delivery challenges were impacting negatively on the JRA’s ability to perform its work, including filling potholes and resurfacing roads.

Consistently throughout the A Re Sebetseng service delivery blitz, which took place between February and June, I witnessed JRA teams unable to do road repair work because of constant water on the road surface owing to pipe bursts, standpipes without drainage as well as blocked or leaking sewer lines spilling raw sewerage onto the JRA’s roads.

As anyone knows, excess water on any road surface ultimately leads to the formation of potholes and other defects which cause the already deteriorated state of the City’s roads to lose their quality further.

While I am appreciative of the need to significantly improve residents’ experience of roads in the City - this is a principle I embrace wholeheartedly - it is also important to note that the ability of JRA to do its work efficiently and effectively is dependent on other departments and entities doing their work timeously and effectively.

Therefore, this interdepartmental initiative spearheaded by the Multi-party Coalition Government must ensure that we begin to hold each other accountable for our actions or lack thereof, and to keep sight of the need to enable each other’s departments and entities to perform their duties with little hindrance.

As JRA prepares to resume the A Re Sebetseng region-by-region service delivery blitz, it is my hope that all outstanding issues affecting road maintenance are resolved urgently. These include the more 2 000 reinstatements that need to be completed by Joburg Water. Joburg Water and JRA had a Service Level Agreement (SLA) but due to the speed of works, Joburg Water opted to appoint own contractors to expedite the reinstatements.  

Resolution of these outstanding matters should bode well for much improved customer satisfaction.

I am happy that engagements will take place monthly, to monitor the work of all departments and entities concerned.

Issued by City of Johannesburg MMC: Transport Funzi Ngobeni