Key points in this article:
· Community-Driven Repair Efforts: Local farmers, including Bertus Pretorius, have taken on the task of repairing the Chelmsford/Normandien Road, using personal funds to fill potholes with gravel due to the lack of official maintenance.
· Heavy Traffic and Road Deterioration: The road, not designed for the volume of approximately 1000 trucks servicing nearby mines each week, has seen significant wear, exacerbating the need for immediate repairs.
· Impact on Daily Life and Local Economy: The road’s condition has led to delays in school commutes, disrupted farming activities, and caused cancellations of local events like the fishing competition at Chelmsford Nature Reserve, directly affecting education, agriculture, and tourism.
· Governmental Inaction and Community Response: Despite ongoing dialogues with the Department of Roads since 2023 and previous attempts at repair, the absence of official action has forced the community to step in, highlighting a broader issue of infrastructure neglect and the resilience of local residents in response.
Navigating the Chelmsford/Normandien Road has become an almost impossible ordeal, with conditions so dire they not only endanger motorists but also cripple the daily operations of farmers, businesses, schools, and the cherished Chelmsford Nature Reserve.
The degradation of this vital artery has reached a crisis point, compelling locals to take drastic action.
Newcastle farmer Bertus Pretorius, alongside fellow agriculturalists, has emerged as an unexpected guardian of the road, stepping up to address a dilemma that has spiralled out of control. On Tuesday, 28 January 2024, Pretorius took to the road with tools rather than complaints, sharing, “The road has been an issue for three years, and myself and others have approached the Newcastle Municipality regarding it and we were told that the road was not under their jurisdiction, but rather fell under the Department of Roads. However, nothing is being done to repair the road, and the conditions are impacting ambulances, the police, and everyone else who relies on the road.”
This isn’t Pretorius’s first foray into road repair; previous attempts were detailed by Newcastillian News in January 2024, where he sought to tar the deteriorating stretch after municipal acknowledgment of the Department’s responsibility. Despite these efforts, the road remains untouched by official hands.
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Amidst a stark absence of governmental action, from Tuesday, 28 January 2025, to 29 January 2025, Pretorius and his team have managed to apply gravel over more than 7 kilometres of the beleaguered road.
“I was able to secure funding through a mining company, which will pay for the labour of the seven team members on the ground, as well as the necessary machinery. While we would have liked to use tar, it is too expensive as I paid for the gravel from my own pocket,” he explained, questioning why the Department, with all its resources, couldn’t replicate such basic maintenance, especially as they had all the tools and labour on hand.
Moreover, Lize Rouwenhorst-Berry, another stalwart of the farming community, revealed that since 2023, farming unions have been in constant dialogue with the Department, even procuring materials and offering labour. Yet, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. “The road is falling apart and what options do we now have? We wrote the letters as when farmers tried to repair the road a while back, we were told that we would be arrested as we were not allowed to work on the road, and these letters show we have been making an effort,” Berry noted, highlighting their recent work on the P39, the Lennoxton to Normandien Road.
The root of the road’s deplorable state, Pretorius argues, lies with the relentless passage of trucks travelling in the area, servicing nearby mines.
“There are approximately 1000 trucks a week that are travelling on the road, and the road is not made for trucks, and something needs to be done, which is why I have started repairing the road with gravel. Unfortunately, this won’t be a lasting solution,” he emphasised.
Victor Buitendach from AFGRI, a pivotal player in agricultural services, articulated the company’s role and the impact of the road’s condition. AFGRI facilitates the entire grain production and storage cycle, providing indispensable services to ensure the agricultural sector’s efficiency. Buitendach pointed out that the road’s condition has led to trucking companies declining transport jobs. This means the food sector is now being affected.
Furthermore, Sibusiso Hadebe, principal at Kijima Primary School, described how the road’s disrepair affects education, with students and teachers battling to arrive on time due to hazardous potholes and slow travel speeds.
“The learners are not always able to get to school on time due to their transport being unable to manage the road because of the large potholes and it is also affecting the educators who have sustained damages to their vehicles. They (educators) have to leave earlier from their homes just to make it on time for work because we have to drive extremely slow on the road,” said Hadebe.
Even tourism has felt the sting of this infrastructural neglect. Janet Hlabisa from Chelmsford Nature Reserve shared, “Our clients complain about the road on a regular basis. In fact, we were supposed to host a fishing competition this past weekend with 600 people, and this was cancelled due to the road conditions. Also, at one stage we would have about 200 visitors a week and this has now dropped because of the condition of the road.”
Due to the impact the damaged road has on multiple individuals, Newcastillian News attempted to reach out to the Department, but no comment could be provided at the time of publication.
As the local community steps in where government has failed, Pretorius and his allies plan to continue their makeshift repairs until Friday, 31 January 2025. This saga of community resilience versus bureaucratic inertia prompts us to ponder: How should communities respond when public infrastructure fails them?
Share your insights in the comments below.
Comments 3
Thank you for fixing the roads, when you’re done, close the road where the children and the farmers must go and let the Mine make their own road to use.
Mine owners do not care about the community, they more concerned about making profits hence neglecting to repair infrastructure damaged by them, they have all the funds and resources to repair this road but they just don’t care
It’s normal to be ignored by incompetent and or lazy government officials. Yet the departments are over staffed and yet again receive salary encreases in excess of the inflation rate.