Gonubie traffic department learner drivers are appealing to the community to assist with refilling potholes on the learner driver test route that is forcing them to swerve into oncoming traffic.
Swerving or encroaching onto the right-hand side of the road into oncoming traffic to avoid a pothole is not permitted in terms of the K53 test, as it brings into offence the National Road Traffic Act, which fails the driving test.
The Gonubie traffic department test route incorporates Oceanway Road, down towards the beachfront, which is riddled with huge potholes.
Gonubie ward councillor Valerie Knoetze said her office had been trying to assist but without transport from the municipality, her team was unable to reach Oceanway Road and had only been able to fill potholes within walking distance of the traffic department because they use wheelbarrows to transport the tar.
Knoetze said her team was not provided with any resources in 2023 including spades, wheelbarrows, and tar and the resources were donated to her office by a community member.
Ward councillors have been set a steep target to fill 200-300 potholes a month, however Knoetze said they had not been supplied with resources or training to do so.
Some ward councillors are paying for tar out of their own pockets and using their own vehicles, while others are forced to use sand to fill the holes.
Knoetze said: “To address the potholes on the driver’s test route, the residents will have to take matters into their own hands and buy tar and fill it ourselves, which shouldn’t be happening because Gonubie residents are paying rates at a steep cost.
“How are people supposed to pass their driver’s tests if they can’t even drive straight and are forced to swerve.
“Pothole filling is a waste of money as its currently being performed because we are just dumping tar into the holes without compacting them and our teams have not been given sufficient training on how to fill the pothole in a lasting way.”
Paul van Zyl of Paul van Zyl’s Driving School said Gonubie is plagued by potholes, drunk driving, excess speed, and a lack of law enforcement.
Van Zyl said he has spent thousands on constant repairs of tyres and wheel rims damaged on Gonubie roads.
He said that both in Gonubie and on Wilsonia’s Voortrekker Road, the learner drivers are forced into a dangerous position facing oncoming traffic to avoid potholes.
Eugene’s Driving School said: “Most learner drivers get nervous when they see the state of the road because they don’t know how to react.
“The learner drivers failed for trying to swerve to avoid the potholes which put a financial burden on them to rebook for the test.
“Because of this, they check the state of the roads at different traffic departments and then opt to do the test with a driving school out of town, at Stutterheim or Qonce and even as far as Gqeberha, which is a loss of business for our local driving schools and traffic departments.
“The roads also cause damages to our cars which is an extra expense because we lose income while our vehicles are in for repairs.
“We are forced to teach learners now to that if there’s a single pothole, they must avoid it and if there are several, they need to drive slowly which impedes traffic.
“The holes in Wilsonia and Gonubie are so big and the damage they cause are huge financial burdens for a driving school to carry.”
Last year the municipality launched the Valazonke pothole patching programme costing R89,8m, to address the scourge of potholes across the city.
The municipality believes the programme is of critical importance to extend the life span of the deteriorating roads network however the patching cannot address the urgent need for the road to be completing resurfaced.
In a report from the BCMM infrastructure services, the municipality said it would secure additional funds to invest in the roads however did not indicate a deadline or an estimated amount needed or how many potholes the Valazonke programme had managed to address by October 2023.
