People should stop "ripping off the government" by suing the Transport Department for injuries and damage caused by potholes - instead, they should be grateful they have roads on which to travel, says department head Chris Hlabisa.
His comments come after he remarked last week that the department needed more money for road maintenance and, coincidentally, while a woman sues the provincial government after she lost part of her arm in an accident when a taxi hit a pothole.
Hlabisa said that instead of realising that many of their fellow citizens did not have transport and roads, people were choosing to "milk the government".
'We are asking them why they are so inconsiderate.'
"I think people are very unfair on the government," he said.
"They know the roads have exceeded their lifespans of 25 years, and they know that we haven't had significant funding towards improving the road network, but people still take us to the cleaners.
"People must work through their consciences and they must understand and go back to the basics and the realities of our country."
Both the provincial and national transport departments were inundated with litigation, and it was causing "a lot of problems".
He cited the 2008 case of Pietermaritzburg advocate Allistair McIntosh, who sued the department for R100 million in compensation for injuries sustained in a cycling accident on the P164 Rosetta-Kamberg road.
McIntosh was eventually awarded R15m in damages.
Hlabisa said there were now queues of people with "overboard" claims at the department's doors.
Some of the claims were for huge amounts and it was difficult for the department to win these cases.
In a current case, Hluphile Elda Zuma, 53, is suing the government for R1.1m after she lost an arm in an accident when the taxi she was travelling in hit a pothole on the R33 between Keates Drift and Tugela Ferry in December, 2004.
"People must be considerate. All the claims are very high, they are ripping off the government... and if our South African public takes us to the cleaners and for a ride, what about those people who have never had access to roads and which is not of their own making?
"We are trying to make ends meet for them, but now we have people who are going all out with an influx of claims. I don't know what they are up to," said Hlabisa.
Asked to clarify whether "considerate" meant that people should only claim for the exact cost of damages suffered, or if they should not claim from the government at all, Hlabisa responded: "People in rural areas are still walking 30km to get to transport.
"There are people whose lives, when it rains, come to a complete standstill because they can't cross swollen rivers to get to schools and clinics... Then you get people who hit a pothole and make a big noise.
"We are asking them why they are so inconsiderate. Don't they know where they are living?
"Don't they know that many people are still suffering because of the imbalances of the past and that they still have to carry coffins many kilometres to graveyards? I am very disappointed."
While the department understood that damage and injuries caused by potholes cost people money, through no fault of their own, there were other people whose lives had "never improved in 300 years".
"We need to strike a balance between people who have no transport and no roads, and people who are suffering damage because of dilapidated roads... It is not because we don't want to fix them, but it is beyond the provincial government's means."
Hlabisa acknowledged that the road network needed rehabilitation but said the department needed more funding.
"It is a reality we are facing. We are limited in terms of resources... There are two worlds in South Africa, the First World and the Third World, yet people are making a meal of it."
