By Thokozani Mazibuko
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Prince Simelane has said he never wishes to be Minister of Housing and Urban Development again.
The Minister was responding to a question raised by Deputy Speaker, Madala Mhlanga who asked if he would jump at the opportunity to be Minister of Housing and Urban Development.
“In this ministry, I had to deal with queries from way back as 1970,” Simelane said.
However, the Minister was representing the substantial Minister, Apollo Maphalala who is reportedly out of the country.
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Initially, the Minister was in Parliament to respond to a motion raised by LaMgabhi Member of Parliament, Sicelo Jele who called upon the Minister of Housing and Urban Development to give a detailed report to the
House of Assembly on what it is doing to fix the potholes in all the cities and towns in the country.
In response, the Minister said the potholes are being fixed in most of the cities.
“I must highlight this, in towns, there are two kinds of roads, one that belongs to the Government and the other that belongs to the Municipality.
The budget to fix these potholes is shockingly going down as last year it was E40 million but this year it is E20 million,” pointed out the Minister.
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It should be noted that a pothole is a depression in a road surface, usually asphalt pavement, where traffic has removed broken pieces of the pavement.
It is usually the result of water in the underlying soil structure and traffic passing over the affected area.
Water first weakens the underlying soil; traffic then fatigues and breaks the poorly supported asphalt surface in the affected area.
Continued traffic action ejects both asphalt and the underlying soil material to create a hole in the pavement.
