The return of the yellow red herring

POTHOLES are a hot topic of late. Actually, they’ve been a hot topic for more than 10 years.

- GREY MUTTER BY LANCE FREDERICKS

It’s so hot that it made me hot under the collar when I had to replace a tyre after it sustained pothole damage on one of Kimberley’s pockmarked thoroughfares.

The frustrating thing is that the destroyed tyre was no more than five months old, and I had not budgeted for this unexpected expense.

But then suddenly there was good news.

I heard through the grapevine that the “Yellow Fleet” was coming to the rescue.

That’s right. Certain local dignitaries recently led the official launch of the Operation Vala Zonke Pothole Patching and Road Maintenance Programme and unveiled — play fanfare here — the province’s R98 million Yellow Fleet in Kimberley.

Imagine my delight when one of the dignitaries announced that the initiative represented a decisive step towards restoring Sol Plaatje Municipality into a modern, clean, functional and economically vibrant city.

Just think: We haven’t had a city like that in decades! Anyway, it was also announced that the government is committed to addressing infrastructure backlogs ... and rebuilding public confidence through visible and practical service delivery interventions.

I shut my eyes and tried to imagine a litter-free, pothole-free, modern, clean, functional and economically vibrant city, and I must admit that I struggled. The image kept glitching in my head.

I remembered how, just three weeks ago, I was ranting in a column about how a pothole-free city has been a repeating promise for far too many years, so I will freely admit that I find it hard to trust this latest promise.

And apparently I am not alone.