Poorly maintained roads with unrepaired sinkholes can sink businesses

• Published date: 04 May 2024
• Publication title: Weekend Argus

Roads, while they may seem inconsequential to some, have the ability to control who enters or leaves a particular area. Looking back on South Africa’s sordid past, roads have divided people based on colour and class. In some cases, roads were built to separate communities – something not unique to South Africa, and that was a global phenomenon

Some 30 years and a few days into our hard-fought democracy, the divide is still evident. Communities are still divided by highways, main roads and railway lines. The difference now, however, is that no one is barred from accessing any road or any community, because we have freedom of movement – until we don’t.

A tricky situation is playing itself out in Montague Gardens, a crucial industrial business hub for Cape Town.

Business owners have complained about loss in millions of rand in revenue. Why? The lack of access to a road. Their customers cannot access their business premises because they have experienced at least 12 sinkholes in six months. How can a road once again deny access and this time affect the bread and butter of many business owners, their workers and the community who seek to make use of...