Orlando West roads cleared

The storm water drainage system in Orlando West was cleared, and other maintenance was undertaken during a Letsema campaign by the Joburg Roads Agency.
IN preparation for the upcoming rainy season, storm water drains in Orlando West were unblocked and silt was cleared from the pipes this weekend as part of the Johannesburg Road Agency’s Letsema programme.

Street namesRepainting street namesWork took place at the circle of Nicholas, Masupha and Sofasonke streets, starting in the early hours of Saturday morning. It was completed on the rather nippy Sunday, 28 August.

Over the two days, the road agency’s office staff came out dressed in their orange overalls to join general workers out in the field. Together, they worked on weeding, clearing drainage systems, clearing silt and unblocking water pipes, and repainting street names and road markings.

The agency’s assistant manager for Region D, Ivy Moiloa, was among those who turned up to help. “Today we are just focusing on this area as it is the one that had major problems, but we are still going to come back to do road maintenance,” she explained.

From today, a specialised unit would be in the area to resurface a number of roads, including, Madlala, Nicholas, Masupha and Adams streets. All resurfacing would amount to about five kilometres.

Letsema, a Sepedi word meaning “to work together”, is a two-day multidisciplinary programme that aims to intensify service delivery. It is part of the mayor’s 90-day Accelerated Service Delivery Plan, which was launched on 27 July and will run until September.

Since the beginning of the campaign in late July, the roads agency has fixed a number of traffic lights, cleared drains and marked roads Sandton and Balfour Park, among other areas.

Each City department has been brought on board for the 90-day programme. The health department had public clean up campaigns around illegal dump sites, which are usually infested with rodents.

Alexandra and parts of Soweto were cleaned. Illegal dump sites were decontaminated and residents learned about the importance of preserving the environment.

The head of environmental health, Peter Manganyi, urged people to take ownership of their environment. “Let us refrain from dumping refuse in the streets and in other places that are not designated dumping sites. Refuse must be put in bags supplied, so that Pikitup can collect them. This will rid our environment of rats and other pests.”