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Tempers flare as Ermelo crumbles

GK CRONJE

16 February 2021

The time of penance has now come to pass, as MLM flounders in its inability to keep the tattered pieces of Ermelo’s infrastructure together.

Dissatisfaction is growing as the state of Ermelo regresses by the day, with the state of the roads taking the spotlight. The state of Chris de Villiers Street, amongst others, have come under fire from road users, especially transport companies, with heavy vehicles being bogged down in the utterly astonishing sinkholes where the surface of the road used to be. Msukaligwa Local Municipality's neglect of maintenance is slowly but surely catching up with them, as tempers flare from fed-up road users.

Msukaligwa Local Municipality, who claims to have a “shoestring budget” to maintain the roads, are now hampered by their half-measures and futile attempts at maintenance, as more and more of Ermelo’s roadways are crumbling away. What would have been clean and easy road maintenance, is now a road rehabilitation nightmare that will cost MLM millions to implement. Instead of patching of potholes and sinkholes according to set forth standards, MLM opted to filling it with soil and loose gravel, an act which has on numerous occasions been highlighted as wholly ineffective and a waste of resources.

The time of penance has now come to pass, as MLM flounders in its inability to keep the tattered pieces of Ermelo’s infrastructure together.

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