
The Bethal Town belongs to the Govan Mbeki local municipality, one of Mpumalanga’s badly-run municipalities that recently failed to account for lost monies to auditor-general Kimi Makwetu.
Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum has undertaken to fix 300 potholes on neglected roads in the Mpumalanga town of Bethal, west of Ermelo.
Bags of latex tar products have been ordered and not only just 300 potholes will be filled but a lot more as the group aims to intervene on behalf of residents who are betrayed by corrupt officials at the Govan Mbeki local municipality in Secunda.
Regional coordinator Hennie Bekker said the latex tar product is as effective as the normal cold premix tar, the Ridge Times has reported.
The money to have local streets and roads patched up in the area comes from local residents and businesspeople, who now prefer to do it themselves than complain to government.
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The patchwork is also creating job opportunities for various men who need to put bread on the table.
“We had to make a decision on which roads need to be maintained and patched up as soon as possible,” Bekker is quoted in the Ridge Times as saying.
“Unfortunately not all the roads can be repaired,” he said, adding maintaining them continuously is made difficult by the trucks that pass there everyday
“We can’t maintain all the roads, it is impossible, funding is also a problem.
“But we try to patch as many holes as possible, but there is just no way that some can again be repaired, because the roads are in poor condition,” he said.
The group has also placed waste bins around the Bethal town, which they take weekly to make sure they make their own town great again.
(edited by ZK)
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