Welkom’s crumbling roads snubbed in FS government’s R1 billion plans to reconstruct roads

Free State premier Sefora ‘Sisi’ Ntombela has snubbed the township of Thabong in line of her initial plans to reconstruct and restore poor road conditions in the province.

During her State of the Province Address (SOPA) tabled last month, Ntombela announced that she will declare a war to failing road surfaces province wide.

She allocated over R1 billion to construct ten provincial and municipal roads within the province, however the entire Welkom situated in Matjhabeng municipality was slightly snubbed in this list.

Welkom’s roads are in such a bad state of disrepair that the municipality will need billions to repair them.

City roads have been in a very poor condition ages ago, during the tenure of former Matjhabeng mayor Nkosinjani Speelman, who was portrayed as the man behind Matjhabeng’s ailing infrastructure.

It was during Speelman’s tenure where contractors were assigned to construct and revitalise Matjhabeng’s township roads, but for many areas none of the projects ran smooth.

Various sections in Thabong are in dire conditions, this includes Extension 19, 21, Hani Park, Putswastene, N1 and New Stands.

The famous and once glorious Constantia road situated in the heart of the ‘Circle City’ has been classified as being in “poor” or “very poor” condition.

Amongst the prioritised cities set to benefit from the provincial bail out, Ntombela indicated that projects that has stood still for a while will not be considered in this budget.

Kasi Voice News reached out to Matjhabeng municipality spokesperson Kgojane Matutle, regarding poor conditions roads in Thabong.

Matutle said the matter is in the hands of the national government, as the city will need over R2.6 billion which is over the amount budgeted by the provincial government.

“The municipality has raised the matter with the national government, as we will need their intervention to assist in this regard,” said Matutle.

He added: “Allocation for both infrastructure road and sewage will need over R2.6 billion, which is excessive amount that will need the national government to intervene, not the provincial sphere.”

Matutle further emphasised that the municipality has implemented the Mayoral Infrastructure Programme to come with workable strategies for road infrastructure, potholes, sewage and streetlights.