Residents of Shallcross, Durban, are tired of waiting for the government – national, provincial or local – to help rebuild flood-damaged infrastructure. So they rolled up their sleeves and did it themselves. “Team Pompene” is what the residents called themselves after the Pompene Bridge was repaired in their area following the devastating flood in April this year. After numerous requests for help from the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and the Department of Transport went unanswered, the Pompene team rebuilt the bridge without assistance from the municipality. They did it in just four working days and spending just over…
Residents of Shallcross, Durban, are tired of waiting for the government – national, provincial or local – to help rebuild flood-damaged infrastructure. So they rolled up their sleeves and did it themselves.
“Team Pompene” is what the residents called themselves after the Pompene Bridge was repaired in their area following the devastating flood in April this year.
After numerous requests for help from the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) and the Department of Transport went unanswered, the Pompene team rebuilt the bridge without assistance from the municipality. They did it in just four working days and spent just over 25,000 rand. They have now produced a self-financing bridge repair guide that has helped communities in eMdloti and La Mercy north of Durban.
This community effort echoes that of a private-municipal partnership in Joburg, where Pothole Patrol – led by the municipality, Discovery Insure and Dial Direct Insurance – has fixed more than 100,000 potholes.
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Perhaps embarrassed by these private efforts, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula this month announced “Vala Zonke”, a joint campaign with Sanral to fill potholes. On the one hand, this looks like positive news, and at least we are solving one of the city’s biggest problems. But let’s not get too carried away.
The involvement of Sanral and the Joburg Municipality is not really to be commended. You can’t praise a fish for swimming. This should be their regular job. It’s also worrying that the government doesn’t seem too concerned about its core responsibilities being taken on by “citizens”… the very people who pay taxes for it to provide such basic services.
While a tax boycott is not an option, the least the government should do is give tax breaks to those individuals and companies that step in to help.
