DURBAN - THE Msunduzi Municipality has partnered with the Department of Transport to fix potholes on the city’s roads.
In a full council meeting on Thursday, the municipality revealed that it had signed a memorandum with the Department of Transport.
A report said a meeting was held on June 21 with the MEC for Transport, Peggy Nkonyeni, who introduced a programme to mitigate the potholes situation in municipalities.
It said the Department of Transport was partnering with municipalities for road maintenance programmes through the co-operatives approach to contribute to service delivery and local economic beneficiation to alleviate development challenges of unemployment, inequality and poverty.
The report stated: “Due to ageing roads infrastructure in Msunduzi Municipality, the municipality has been dealing with pothole challenges on a continuous basis.
“Most of the city's roads have reached their lifespan and budget constraints for preventative maintenance. It has been challenging to maintain pothole backlogs in the municipality,” it said.
It said it was important to use co-operatives in the programme.
“The primary aim of using co-operatives should be to plan for the effective and efficient infrastructure maintenance within the jurisdiction of municipalities whilst creating employment opportunities for locals,” it said.
The report said the arrangement would assist the municipality because there would be external financial and human resource assistance from Transport towards road infrastructure maintenance.
THE MERCURY