Small business owners along Walter Sisulu Road in Khayelitsha are appealing to the City of Cape Town to speed up the construction of a traffic circle on the busy road.
They claim it has been two months since the road was “temporarily” and it negatively affected their businesses.
Sbu, a car wash owner, said he had been operating along the road for nearly two years.
Since the City closed the road his business has not generated any money.
“Most of my customers are taxi drivers, but since the road closed they are not coming anymore because they are no longer using this route. We understand the reason the City decided to build a roundabout on this road.
“There are too many accidents that are happening here and the motorists are always driving at high speed,” said Sbu.
He said some of the drivers were driving under the influence of alcohol. He stated that there were motorists who got stuck in the trenches that have been dug as part of the construction of the traffic circle because there were no road signs.
“There are about three cars that sank there within this short period of time because there are no road signs that show the road is under construction.
“All the road signs that were there were stolen by unknown people. That is why there is sand on the road to avoid cars passing through,” he stated.
Ward 95 councillor Ayanda Tetani confirmed that the City was building a traffic circle to avoid car accidents. He described Walter Sisulu as one of the busiest roads in the area.
“This year alone, before the roundabout was constructed, there were about four car accidents that occurred on Walter Sisulu. The drivers are driving at high speed because the road is wide open. So by building the roundabout, we are trying to minimise those accidents,” he said.
Tetani said the construction of the roundabout was expected to be completed within four months.
“The construction started in April and it was scheduled to be completed within four months. However, there were some delays of two weeks within the same month the construction had started which compelled the construction to stop because of some differences within the community. But with the pace the constructors are going it seems they will finish within four months,” said Tetani, adding that all the road signs were stolen.