MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) - Members of the public who tried to gain access to the Makhado Municipal buildings this week, were seriously inconvenienced.

All the main pedestrian routes from Erasmus Street led visitors on a collision course with a new steel palisade fence, with no means of entry in sight.

The only access during the current rainy weather was down a muddy slope and across a trench. The vehicle entrance to the parking area in front of the new wing of the municipal buildings was also blocked.

At neither the pedestrian stairway, nor the paved route, which now ends against the palisade fence, was any notice warning visitors about the futility of following these routes or any indication of alternative routes by which the civic centre could be accessed.

Vehicle traffic to a part of the new parking area was only possible through what was previously the southern entrance for staff vehicles.

Nowhere was any visible effort to assist visitors to discover the severely limited entrance possibilities. Council's PRO, Mr Peter Muleya, on Tuesday merely stated that the fence is being erected for safety reasons. Apparently some councillors' and officials' vehicles were damaged.