VUYO MKIZE
MASERU Street has become one of Soweto’s most dangerous roads – and it is still without speed bumps.
This is despite years of petitions and protests by residents to have bumps constructed on the road, which recently saw the deaths of two schoolchildren in hit-and-run accidents.
On Sunday, Nkosinathi Maika, 27, was hit by an unidentified speeding car while crossing the street in Meadowlands Zone 7, leaving him with a concussion and an injured spine.
Yesterday, Maika shook uncontrollably as he sat at the Meadowlands police station to lay a charge.
“I was taking my two-year-old son to his mother’s place. After I dropped him off, I crossed the road so I could catch a taxi – but then the next thing I saw was a speeding red car. After that it just became blurry,” he said.
The motorist did not stop and left Maika lying on the tarmac. Luckily for Maika, residents called an ambulance and he was rushed to Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
Maika’s mother, Thoko, said Sunday had been the one-month anniversary of the death of her other son, Nkosinathi’s older brother.
“When I heard that Nkosinathi had been in an accident, my heart froze. I’m relieved he is alive, but he is still shaking and he was not given any medication to take home, so we have to buy him painkillers. He is still so disoriented. If his shaking gets worse, we will have to send him to Helen Joseph Hospital,” she said.
Three weeks ago, nine-year-old Tshegofatso Mampe’s body lay lifeless after she had been knocked down, also after a hit-and-run accident. Just 45 days before that, a six-year-old child was knocked down and killed by a speeding car.
Ward councillor Norman Ngwedzini told The Star then that at a meeting last month, officials from the Road Traffic Management Corporation and the Johannesburg Roads Agency agreed that construction of the speed bumps was to begin last week.
Yesterday, Ngwedzini said he was still unsure when construction of the traffic-calming measures would begin.
“We still need to get a briefing from engineers,” he said, attributing the accidents to reckless and drunk driving.
Patrick Mohlophegi, of the Meadowlands Concerned Residents Association, said it should not have taken the deaths of two children to hear the residents’ cries for safer roads.
“We have had the same problem of speeding cars ploughing into our children for 17 years, and (Ngwedzini) has been a councillor for as long as we have had the problem. If he had been delivering, the kids would be safe on the roads.”
According to Robert Mulaudzi, a Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesman for Soweto, Impala Road in Protea North was so notorious for its high accident level that it had been dubbed “the killer road”.
“We have to attend to a lot of accident scenes on that road because there are many potholes and it is not maintained. At least once or twice a week there are accidents reported. It is even worse when it rains.”
Sagewood Road, with its sharp curve, is also dangerous, say locals. Mulaudzi cautioned drivers to drive with caution on the R558 towards Lenasia as there were frequent accidents owing to the number of trucks and other vehicles on the road.