Pothole pandemic

An esteemed medical expert was killed last week trying to ensure that nobody was hurt driving into a pothole in Sandringham that had been there almost six weeks.

Dr Simmy Waner must have been so frustrated at seeing that hole in the road for weeks on end with nothing done about it. We all know that feeling. We all know the frustration.

And he paid the ultimate price for trying to help others by attempting to put a traffic cone in the path so that people didn’t drive into it. It’s a bizarre and desperately sad story, one that could literally only happen in South Africa. It seems so small a thing for someone to do, and such a massive price to pay. However, there’s no question, this doctor is a hero!

He’s a hero in a crazy city where potholes abound and other areas of our infrastructure are falling apart at the seams. It’s a sorry situation, and nobody should ever lose their lives trying to protect others from the result of infrastructure failure.

How do we make sure that Dr Waner didn’t die in vain?

Look around you, there’s hardly a street without a pothole or two. Even trying to navigate myself around Johannesburg on Waze, the potholes are pointed out to me. I often wonder if there’s anything like that in other countries in which people use Waze.

This problem isn’t new in Johannesburg. I recall years back when I bought a car and within a month, went through two tyres in quick succession – a week or so apart – driving into potholes in the rain. Only now it’s worse.

Many activists in our society have gone out to fix the potholes in their areas themselves. But they do it at their peril. Just this week, I read an article in BizNews, in which the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) – whom I assume is meant to ensure we don’t have potholes – warned Johannesburg residents that they were breaking the law in fixing potholes themselves. I’m not joking!

The JRA says it’s illegal because they are not using the correct material. That’s rich, coming from an organisation that clearly is out of its depth or simply not doing what it’s meant to do, leaving potholes for ages all over the place.

I don’t know a single soul who would willingly spend their days filling potholes if they didn’t believe the situation was desperate. Nobody does something like this for fun.

People are doing it so that we can have a semblance of normality and, as South Africans, we’re the “make-a-plan” nation. We have a horrible pothole crisis. I know the JRA pooh-poohed the estimate of 25-million potholes in South Africa, saying it was a total exaggeration, but it doesn’t seem to have the facts and figures to back this up.

Whatever the numbers, even if it’s thousands, it’s an untenable situation. And it’s a situation based purely on sheer neglect of road maintenance.

So, if the government or, in this case the JRA, isn’t doing its job properly and we need something done, we do it ourselves. Simple!

But instead of saying thank you, and ensuring that it supplies the correct material to those civilians who are willing to take time to do this task themselves, it issues a warning: “Stop doing this good deed or else!” Only in South Africa!

The JRA is also threatening to prosecute those, who also out of sheer frustration, have taken to circling potholes with luminous paint and spray painting “ANC” or “DA” alongside the pothole.

I so understand their frustration and, though they are making a strong point about who is responsible, they are also alerting drivers to where the potholes are to avoid accidents. This is more than the authorities responsible are doing.

Instead of getting the hint, the authorities are threatening to fine those responsible. Isn’t it amazing, they seem to be able to find time to find people to fine, but not to fill in potholes. Only in SA!

In response to the threats of fines, one woman tweeted, “When your guy comes along with our fine notice, please tell him to bring a spade and some tar, and he can help us fill a few potholes. As if an agency that can’t find and fill holes in the first place is capable of prosecuting anyone!”

Another problem deriving from infrastructure failure is traffic lights not working during loadshedding. To counter this problem (and potentially make a buck at the same time), many beggars have taken to directing traffic at busy intersections. To be honest, I was wary at first, but they don’t seem to be doing too bad a job. I even wondered if perhaps the authorities had done the clever thing of finding beggars and training them to take on this sorely needed job. I mean, obviously, if the traffic officials were there, the beggars wouldn’t feel the need to help.

Having done a little homework, I discovered that, in fact, the metro police hadn’t trained anyone, instead it was threatening to arrest all the beggars directing traffic.

Evidently these beggars aren’t trained, and who knows if they have caused accidents or not. I have no idea how complicated it is to direct traffic, but it doesn’t make sense to me for traffic officers to come and arrest these people for doing something they wouldn’t be able to do had there been officers doing it themselves.

Are there insufficient traffic officers for this task? Well, there are lots of unemployed people who could be trained to take this on. It doesn’t need to be beggars, but having such people at busy intersections that require traffic lights is a no-brainer.

I would like to suggest to the metro police that instead of threatening beggars with incarceration, they do something positive to remediate the situation. Train people to do this job because we, the motorists who you are supposedly safeguarding, are in danger at complicated traffic intersections where the lights aren’t working during loadshedding.

It’s way past time for our authorities to wake up and do what they need to do to support our city’s infrastructure. Please don’t let Dr Simmy Waner’s death be in vain!

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor