I used to live in Midrand (Halfway House) up until 8 years ago and lived there for 7 years. Midrand was the up and coming place to be, growth like nowhere else in the Southern Hemisphere and teaming with new business. Midrand was THE destination for a corporate head office and a much sought after place to live.
Midrand has unfortunately had a permanent problem with it’s town council, namely that it’s stifled with inhouse politics and infighting, and the result of this shows in the dismally poor way in which this city is managed and it’s NOT to do with any shortage of taxes because Midrand was and probably still is one of the more expensive places to live when it comes to taxes. This was sure how the town council ran when we lived there and I doubt much has changed.
In particular the road system of Midrand sucks more than an Electrolux. Hardly anything is done to maintain the roads.
- There are potholes all over the place and in the last year hardly any of them have been fixed and they keep growing in number and in size.
- Kyalami Road which leads through Crowthorne, and is the main entrance to Beaulieu, has remained in the same state for as long as I have been going to Midrand (20+ years), not ONE change or modification has been done to improve that. Daily this road is absolute chaos with tailbacks stretching for several kilometres. The intersection at Crowthorne is littered with stones and loose particles which causes those with fancier cars to slow down so as not to scratch their cars and this causes even further congestion. The road surface is warped, cracked and uneven but in nearly 15 years diddly squat has been done to amend it. To add to the traffic chaos it’s doubtful you’ll ever find a pointsmen on duty there to help traffic flow.
- Van Heerden road which runs past the High school and Primary school is absolutely shocking, I drove there last week and nearly lost a front tyre due to the massive pothole there, luckily the vehicle in front of me swerved out. Had it been at night that would have caused serious damage. It probably has already caused damages to numerous vehicles travelling that road at night. It’s NOT like Van Heerden road does not carry some serious traffic, so why then are repairs not being carried out and timeously?
- Almost all heavily used back roads are in a rather dismal state too, again it’s not like the Midrand town council does not know how much traffic these roads carry it seems more like they just don’t care.
I struggle to believe that maintenance is being held back from a lack of taxes, I think it’s more of a case of a lack of ability or lack of knowledge on spending public funds wisely or the funds are being used for “other purposes”. Either this is the case or the Midrand Town Council is still stifled by the politics and infighting as it was when I lived there.
Midrand ratepayers should really not be just accepting that this is the way it is, it takes a bit of effort to stand up and fight for what’s right but on the surface it appears nobody is actually doing that. I just avoid Midrand like the plague, on occasion I have no choice but to go there but every time it is the most unpleasant experience. I’ve even told my one suppliers to move shop and they actually did not disagree with me.
Related posts:
- Horrible Hendrik Potgieter (The Road)
- Keep Left Pass Right – The Most Basic MISUNDERSTOOD and UNUSED law of the road
