Traffic lights in East Rand remain a headache for residents
AfriForum is calling on the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality to urgently work to repair traffic lights in various parts of the East Rand. Some traffic lights have been out of service for more than six months.
AfriForum conducted a survey among East Rand residents in November last year to determine the impact of these traffic lights. 396 respondents participated in the survey and the results were provided to Lehlohonolo Gomo, head of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality’s Department of Roads and Transport Management. The respondents participated in the survey from Alberton, Benoni, Birchleigh, Boksburg, Brakpan, Clayville, Geduld, Kempton Park, Springs, Edenvale, Germiston, Tembisa and Vosloorus.
The respondents were asked to indicate, among other things, whether they had encountered faulty traffic lights in the past 12 months, whether their safety was put at risk as a result of these traffic lights, and whether they had been in a collision as a result of traffic lights that were not working. On the last question, 82.24% indicated that they had narrowly avoided a collision at one of these traffic lights, while 30.87% had been involved in collisions as a result of these traffic lights.
Although 64.52% of respondents reported these traffic lights to the metro, only 4.56% of these complaints were successfully resolved.
According to Nadia Olckers, AfriForum’s district coordinator for the East Rand, these figures indicate dilapidated infrastructure and a fundamental lack of ability and accountability on the part of the metro to take the magnitude of this problem seriously.
“This issue calls for immediate action from the Ekurhuleni Metro. We also request that clarity be given on the steps that will be taken to repair and maintain the traffic lights across the metro,” Olckers concluded.
