To cater for possible repairs required by trucks stuck in long queues to access the Port of Richards Bay, informal repair facilities are springing up to undertake repairs.
That’s according to reports on social media circulated between residents and businesses affected by congestion caused by tipper trucks carrying coal.
One post said: “Bus stops are makeshift roadside workshops.”
Apparently, oil filters and dumped cargo, mostly coal soot, litter streets to and from the port.
“It’s the same old story with no end in sight,” a resident said.
Another said that it has been like this for months, has been reported many times but to no avail.
On a visit to Richards Bay last Friday, Freight News witnessed how trucks often enter the residential and CBD area of the port city, veering away from the industrial area where the port is located.
As has been the case in the border town of Komatipoort, where residents have been complaining of trucks tipping soot out of their buckets on the side of the road, causing a pollution hazard if coal dust leaches into groundwater, Richard Bay’s residents have similar gripes.
One resident said he’s been cleaning his verge himself, but then the mess only moves further down the road.
“There’s not much more one can do.”
