OPINION: Whoever is organising the pothole repairs in Kimberley is setting themselves up for failure, writes Danie van der Lith.
BENJAMIN Franklin famously said: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Isn’t that quote the most weighty of all? To the reader, it appears to be clear. And yet, day after day, we are forced to cope with the results of our lack of planning. Even if the message from dear old Ben is flawless, we are unable to understand its importance. It appears that a fairly naive belief takes hold instead. Chance will be on our side and will not fail us. The situation will be OK.
But how OK is our situation really in our Diamond City?
Almost every aspect of our life is impacted by the planning we do. We make plans for the upcoming day, the job we will do, the meal we will eat tonight, and the activities we will engage in during the weekend. Planning is crucial because, if you don’t, you’re basically planning to fail.
I can’t help but think that whoever is organising the pothole repair plans in Kimberley is setting themselves, and every motorist in the city, up for failure. Don’t get me wrong, we thank Sol Plaatje Municipality for fixing the potholes, but I do think that the planning could use some improvement.
It’s great and much-needed that the municipality is preparing the roads for repairs, as can be seen almost everywhere you travel in the city. To create room for brand-new, fresh tar, large square pieces of the old tar have been removed from the roads. Everything is OK, but the issue is that those holes remain there for weeks or months at a time. They create an extra problem for every driver who has to use that road and they are made even deeper by the hundreds of wheels that pass over them every single day.
Now, this is just me thinking out loud, I would think that when a large section of road is being prepped by cutting out the tar on a Monday, there is tar waiting in the storeroom for filling up those holes on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. But for some reason, the holes are cut and left for weeks. Won’t it be better to wait until you are ready for a road, before cutting up the road?
After contacting Sol Plaatje Municipality to enquire about the large repair cut-outs in Aristotle Avenue, municipal spokesperson Thoko Riet stated that the road was prepared for repair and only need patching.
The team, she said, had intended to perform the repair work on Tuesday morning, but bad weather had prevented them from doing so. If the weather is co-operative, the team will begin repairs on Thursday morning, she said.
All I know is that somehow, somewhere, the planning for the pothole repairs will need to be looked at – because if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
