Swazi Observer

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BAD ROADS: SICK RESIDENTS PUSHED IN WHEELBARROWS

By BONGIWE DLAMINI | 2023-02-16

Some residents of Mtfuntini community have been forced to use wheelbarrows to help the sick get access to the main road.

Once at the main road, the residents can then be able to access public transport or ambulances, which have found it difficult to use the road, due to its poor and inaccessible state.

This then leaves the community with no option but to find other means to get to the main road.

Bread, which is an everyday commodity, has to be fetched from the main road as the bakery truck cannot reach the local convenient store.

This challenge is said to have been caused by the heavy rains but worsened after parts of the road were dug to install a water pipe to service the area.

The Matfuntini community is at the heart of Mathangeni in Matsapha.
According to Lucky Mbingo, who is the Secretary General for Mtfuntini Community Project, the project was started with the sole purpose to develop the community’s roads.

Mbingo said in an effort to improve the gravel road, members of the community had contributed towards the project, which was supposed to have been implemented before the end of 2022.

Project
However, this deadline could not be met following an alleged request from a service provider, which also wanted to ride on the project.

“We informed the representative of our plan to pave the road and he said the service provider would do that for us after they had installed their pipes,” stated Mbingo.
However, the secretary general said this was not done after the pipes were installed in October 2022.

The service provider is known to this newspaper, however, as it had not responded to a questionnaire by the time of filing this report, it will be withheld for now.
However, Mbingo alleged that after the pipes were installed, they were only covered with soil which was not later compacted.

“This has caused parts of the road to be muddy, making it hard for motorists to drive through. This has been an inconvenience to the motorists as they had to pay people to help push their cars out of the mud,” stated Mbingo.

He added that some residents with sick members also had to push the sick ones in wheelbarrows to the main road, where they can access an ambulance.

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