Residents of the Mulima Pfananani area are threatening to boycott the coming general elections, should the Department of Roads and Transport continue to ignore their requests to fix the D2677-road from Pfananani to Vleifontein and the D3727-road in Chavani Morebeng.
Residents in the Mulima area complain that travelling to and from their homes is difficult with the roads being in such a poor condition because of rain damage. Learners, educators, and people who have to travel a long distance from home to get to school and work were delayed for hours last week after a bus slipped and got stuck on the Pfananani road, blocking the entire road for two days.
Mr Samuel Mathepe told Limpopo Mirror that perhaps the only way they would get attention was if they all decided to boycott the upcoming elections. Mathepe said that they were tired of being driven from pillar to post, only to receive empty promises.
The chairperson of the Mulima Development Forum, Mr Gezani Chabalala, said that this had been going on for a long time. "Our lives have been a living hell and residents are forced to take a detour to access the main road to and from Mulima," he said. According to him, the community had been visited by the Vhembe District's executive mayor, Cllr Dowelani Nenguda, and Makhado Municipality's mayor, Cllr Samuel Munyai, who took it upon himself to make some follow-ups and promised to report back to the community.
Chabalala said that they were not happy that the provincial Department of Public Works and Roads Agency treated them so badly. He said that the roads that ran through the area were supposed to improve the local economy and make it easier for residents to gain access to public transport. According to Chabalala, they had written several letters to the department and called their spokesperson, Joel Seabi, who told them that the department did not have the budget to fix the roads.
Mr Nkhangweni Phadziri of Phadziri Bus Service, which operates in the area, said that they had already met with representatives of the Makhado Municipality, Vhembe District, and the Department of Public Works several times to discuss the condition of the roads, but nothing had been done about them. He appealed to the department to pay attention to the problem.
On enquiry, Seabi said that the department was currently busy with the rehabilitation of the damaged roads. They had already started with the first phase of the project, but because of the length of the road, completing it would take some time. He said that the government apologised for the inconvenience.
Seabi explained that many roads around the province had been damaged by the recent heavy rains and that the department was working tirelessly to repair as many as they could, as fast as they could.