Neotel gets flak
WHILE many South Africans are eagerly awaiting the services of Telkom rival Neotel, Johannesburg residents are furious about the damage wreaked by the company — and many others — on the city’s roads.
Some have vented their anger directly at Neotel, which is building the backbone for its fixed-line telephone infrastructure.
“Residents are up in arms about the state of the roads, and the impact they have on their day to-day living through traffic holdups, potholes that are damaging vehicles and the general safety of the roads,” admits Stefano
Other telecommunications companies including Telkom, Vodacom and Dark Fibre Africa have also embarked on digging trenches to lay cables.
“A number of players are laying fibre in preparation for providing better communications systems to the country and for the 2010 Soccer World Cup,” says Mattiello.
In addition, the Johannesburg Roads Agency has given about 500 applicants, including Eskom, Egoli Gas, City Power and Johannesburg Water, the go-ahead to excavate roads for their projects, says Conel Mackay, the agency’s spokesperson.
Mackay says the surge in excavation applications, which is much higher than in previous years, has mainly been driven by an “inordinate increase” in infrastructural projects such as the Gautrain ahead of 2010.
The boom in construction, he says, requires a corresponding upgrade of services such as telecoms and energy in popular business hotspots like Sandton, Rosebank, Randburg and Johannesburg.
Consequently, there are now “more open trenches” on the roads, says Mackay. “Some of them have caused potholes.”
Over the past three months, the agency received 1850 complaints related to potholes. “We have some roads that need urgent intervention,” says Mackay.
But the intervention has had limited effect. The agency, which maintains a tarred road network of about 10000km, is battling to keep pace with the ballooning backlog of road maintenance cases. It has turned to private-sector subcontractors as a way of trying to reduce the backlog.
David Botha, an engineer and executive director for the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, says the agency should, instead, employ technical expertise. “It should recognise the value of the engineering professions,” says Botha.
The Johannesburg Road Agency has received about 56 insurance claims so far.
Some pothole-infested roads have led to serious accidents.
As a result, the agency has stepped up inspections and is in “the process of revisiting the bylaws” to effect stricter penalties against noncompliant companies. At the moment, companies pay R290 for every square metre that is improperly handled.
“Service providers can’t re-tar the roads, but do have a responsibility to ensure the backfill is done to the point of cement to minimise the impact on motorists. After that, the Johannesburg Road Agency takes over to tar those sections,” says Mattiello.
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