Watch: President Road in Midrand is a danger
Resident Godfrey Ramalisa said he reported the road to the City and JRA in November last year with no positive response.
It’s almost a year since it was reported that President Road in President Park was possibly the worst road in SA.
In the article, President Road could be voted as the worst in SA, [Week Ending 28 June 2024], the road was described as being littered with potholes and, if not repaired, could lead to the erosion of the entire surface.
This had nothing to do with the recent rains but more with Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) poor road maintenance, according to resident Godfrey Ramalisa.
He said clogged drainage systems around President Park have led to rainwater running through the streets.
The publication visited the site on April 5, where Ramalisa, and fellow residents Neatson Mnyenyembe and Samuel Sithole were trying to redirect the water via a trench parallel to the road.
They said about 800m down the road, which connects to Boshoff Road at a dangerous sharp curve, there is constant flooding whenever it rains. Motorists from Kaalfontein, Ebony Park and Ivory Park, including Scholar Transport Association, use this route as a shortcut to Midrand.
Ramalisa, an engineer by profession, claimed JRA was not cleaning the drainage systems before the rainy season, which ultimately led to flooding.
“I reported this to the city in November last year. But they have not been coming to fix it, and this is an easy job. All they need to do is redirect the water into the trench so that rainwater runs through the drains. Now, what causes this erosion is that rainwater runs on the road because of blocked drains, which affects the road and leads to potholes,” explained Ramalisa.
Members of the Midrand Learner Transport Association (MLTA) also filled in the edge of the road with rocks and bricks on April 7. The association spokesperson Phill Pillay said this was an initiative by the members and the leadership to tackle badly damaged roads ahead of Term 2.
“They [members and leadership] got together and decided to fix the road because we use it to transport learners. We fixed roads that are bad as they cause a lot of traffic for us as well and delay our learners to arrive on time at their various schools. So because the schools are opening for term 2 tomorrow [April 8], we thought it would be a good idea to fix this problem and hope it eases traffic flow,” added Pillay.
The paper contacted JRA’s communication department on April 2, with a deadline of April 8, asking if they would resurface the road from scratch and unblock the clocked drainage system.
Agency spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers acknowledged our query the same day, saying, “Thank you for your enquiry, we will try to revert within your timeframe.”
However, they had not responded at the time of publication despite reminders on April 7 and 8.
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