The Makhado Municipality’s most recent attempt at repairing the town’s dilapidated streets had motorists fuming last week.

On Monday, 18 February, a truck was spotted spraying a layer of tar on the road surface in President Street between Songozwi and Rissik Street. The previous day, tar was also sprayed in Devenish Street between President and Grobler Street. In both instances, no warning signs could be seen anywhere, causing many a motorists to drive onto the wet tar. The result was tar-covered vehicles.

“I had to, at my own expense, remove the tar from my vehicle. The least they could do was to warn motorists that the tar is wet,” remarked resident Mr Eddie Luies.

Questions also arose as to what exactly the municipality aimed to achieve by spraying the road surface with tar. The road surface itself was not even swept of debris before spraying took place, with a large amount of the wet tar merely running off into the storm-water drainage system.

“At first I thought it was water running into the storm drains but was completely dumfounded to see that it was tar,” remarked Luies.

Asked who the contractor responsible for the project was, municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi indicated that it was Fantique Trade 786 CC Construction. The name might ring a bell with readers, as it is the same company responsible for the yet-to-be-finished Munnik-, Stubbs- and Anderson Street.

Bobodi further said that the spraying of the tar forms part of the municipality’s maintenance and street rehabilitation program. As for the absence of warning signs, Bobodi said that this aspect of the project was the contractor’s responsibility. Asked who was supervising the project, Bobodi said that it was Dombo and Du Plessis Consulting Engineers. They are also the consulting engineers on the unfinished road works in Munnik-, Stubbs- and Anderson Street. Bobodi supplied no answer when asked whether the project was done according to specifications and what the next step with regard to rehabilitating the streets would be.