No place to walk for pedestrians

Galante has complained that it is a nightmare walking on Pretoria Avenue in Atholl. “There is a big hole on the pavement,” she said.

“It is so big, anyone can fall inside.”

Pedestrians commuting on Pretoria Avenue are forced to walk in the street because of this. There are no warning signs to alert pedestrians of the dangers ahead.

Galante added that the hole had a temporary cover that ended up breaking in half and falling inside.

“It is very dangerous, someone could get hurt,” she said.

No comment was received from the Johannesburg Roads Agency with regards to these specific dug-up pavements. However, spokesperson Bertha Peters-Scheepers asserted that in most instances they were aware of who was responsible for the excavations, saying that the team did not have the information off-hand and would need to refer to its files.

Frans Ledwaba, the agency’s wayleave assistant manager, said the challenge was monitoring all entities responsible for digging up the pavements. He said others had been digging up the pavements without the roads agency’s permission.

“There are contractors and companies that try to do work without us knowing, but when we pick [that] up then we really hit them with a high penalty,” he said.

Ledwaba added that the agency also faced the challenge of thieves digging up areas to access underground cables. In some instances, he said, thieves would even don uniforms so as not to raise suspicions.

The roads agency acknowledged that tighter monitoring was necessary. Peters-Scheepers said the agency remained reliant on the public to report these issues.

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