The loss of life after a car plunged down a hole that had been left when a bridge collapsed seven months ago after heavy rains has led a community in Mpumalanga to accuse the provincial government of leaving a death trap in their area.
In Saturday night’s accident at the bridge that connects the Mbombela CBD and townships like Ntokozweni, KaNyamazane, a man in his 30s died after the car he was travelling in plunged down the hole in the middle of the road.
The area has not been barricaded and there are no visible signs warning motorists of the collapsed bridge or that driving there is dangerous.
Tekwane community member Sipho Nkosi said people who did not live in the area were not aware that the bridge had collapsed.
“The premier came here [in January] and promised that the bridge will be fixed very soon. The soon she was talking about is the whole year. They left this bridge as a death trap for us. There are no barricades to even warn people,” he said.
The accident took place just weeks after the community protested over the bridge not having been repaired.
“You will remember that last month we had to picket and called for government to rebuild the bridge speedily but they politicised our cry, saying we are complaining about councillors and also accused us of having interests in tenders,” said Derick Shongwe.
“We are not tendering... We are just community members who are concerned that this death trap is going to kill more people.”
The provincial department of public works, roads and transport in Mpumalanga said the construction of the bridge would start this month.
Spokesperson Bongani Dhlamini said the government had allocated R26m from the provincial disaster management fund for the reconstruction of the bridge, adding that this excluded design and supervision.
“The department has finalised the procurement processes and a contractor has been appointed for the construction of the bridge. The contractor is expected to establish a site camp within 28 days.”
He said construction was expected to be completed within six months.
“The department has ensured that all damaged road infrastructure was made safe and if necessary barricaded until repairs are carried out. Hence an alternative temporary road was constructed,” said Dhlamini.
“Priority has been given to roads used by scholar transport – these are mainly gravel roads and have been graded and some re-gravelled. Pothole patching and clearing of drainage structures has been done throughout the province.”
The premier’s office would not comment yesterday and ‘‘referred Sowetan to Dhlamini.
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