by: nazeem berenisco
Insurance on tyres is an unfortunate necessity in Makhanda. The Makhanda community is facing ever-increasing difficulties because of the continually expanding potholes that remain unfixed.
Alexia Mourato, a 3rd year Pharmacy student at Rhodes University, said that the pothole problem is always increasing. She describes how they never get fixed properly, but are filled with cement or sand instead. This is ineffective as every time there is rainfall, they get reopened and only grow bigger. When asked how the potholes affect her daily routine, Alexia replied by saying that on an average day the potholes slow her down. This happens especially when she is driving from her house to campus for a lecture. She also says that she always has to avoid the potholes by coming to a near standstill in order to accurately dodge out of the way of the numerous potholes. She recalls driving into a pothole and popping a tyre, which forced her to stop her car near the curb to in order to change it. She not only missed two lectures, but .
Alexia said, “On three separate occasions, I have experienced where I either didn’t see them [potholes] or they covered. I have driven into massive potholes which has negatively affected my car’s suspension, because I would try to avoid one pothole and end up driving into another. The fact that I have low profile tyres doesn’t help but that is besides the fact that it is the municipalities job to make safe roads for us to drive on”.
When asked how the potholes affect her finances Alexia answered by saying that, they definitely affect her finances in a very negative way because in the past year, she has had to buy three new tyres which are not cheap especially for students, she said that a new tyre costs about R2000, which is a lot of money that she has had to spend three times on new tyres.
After being asked if a pothole has ever caused an accident or a near accident whilst driving Alexia’s reply was that she has never been in an accident, but can imagine that many people have fallen victim to pothole related accidents, as they are very dangerous, especially if there are learner drivers on the road. On top of them being anxious, and scared while they drive now they also have to dodge potholes making the roads even more dangerous.
A well known and respected man in Makhanda, Dr Dario Berenisco was also interviewed with regards to the pothole problem. Dr Berenisco commented that the potholes are a menace, especially on the commute to and from work. He says that on the way to work he takes the same route to work everyday as it is the shortest route to work, but is unfortunately riddled with potholes. He says that although he owns a Hilux bakkie (which is 4 by 4, meaning that it can handle almost any terrain) he still feels as if it takes some sort of toll on his car despite not having popped a tyre or anything yet. He says that he always manages to hit a pothole, especially on a late night call out on his way to the hospital, because he cannot slow down to avoid them because one never knows if it [the night call] is a case of life or death.
Dr Berenisco said that although he has never been affected financially by means of buying tyres, he said that he was forced to by a bakkie to replace his sedan car, because of the increasingly bad roads, so in a way financially he has been affected by the potholes. Another reason why he bought the bakkie was also because he can’t afford to pop a tyre on late night calls to a patient’s house or the hospital. Dr Berenisco also said that he couldn’t waste time replacing tyres and fixing his sedan’s suspension when it broke down because this would affect his job as he is a very busy man.
Dr Berenisco hopes that the municipality could fix the roads soon, because although he has never been in a pothole related accident or a near pothole related accident, he has seen a patient who has been in a pothole related accident. Dr Berenisco said he saw a patient who hit a pothole, after that lost control of his car and drove straight into a tree which caused him to have life threatening injuries. Dr Berenisco continued by saying that “The patient had a seat belt bruise across his chest which is a mark of the tremendous force of the accident and injury it caused to the patient”. He concluded by saying that the municipality should be ashamed of the state that these roads are in.
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