There’s no doubt that our roads are in a really wretched condition. Going practically anywhere by road feels like participating in a slalom race; for those who care about their vehicles, or who don’t own fancy 4 x 4’s.
So while I should be welcoming the commitment by government to spend R150-million to fix potholes, I have this nagging feeling that something is amiss, given their appalling track record in spending taxpayers money judiciously; even this modest sum.
There’s the bothersome issue about tenders for pals and competence. We’re all too aware of how unduly susceptible our government is, about handing out tenders to their friends and family, but even more disturbing is that these beneficiaries invariably produce shoddy work, which goes unchecked because of governments infamous maladministration practices.
While we’re all familiar with government sinking obscene amounts of money down a big black hole; this pothole project may just turn out to be a case of sinking a large sum of money down thousands of smaller holes.
With all the heavy rains we’ve been getting recently, and this repair project only scheduled to kick off in March of this year, let’s hope that they still have potholes to repair rather than entire roads.
Lenny Says 