Suspended Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy president Kenny Kunene, who resigned as Johannesburg MMC for transport, leaves behind a portfolio buckling under the weight of potholes and broken traffic lights blighting SA’s economic and financial heartland.
Kunene’s resignation last week came after police recently found him at the Sandton house of murder accused Katiso “KT” Molefe.
The flamboyant politician told media outlets he had been at the house when police arrived to arrest Molefe because he was facilitating an interview with a newsmaker for journalists from his online news platform.
Molefe is accused of being the mastermind behind the hits on DJ Sumbody and Armand Swart, a Vereeniging engineer killed after his company allegedly flagged price gouging in a Transnet tender.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie subsequently suspended Kunene from political party activities pending an investigation into the allegations against him.
Repeated attempts to get hold of Kunene failed.
Johannesburg executive mayor Dada Morero caused an outcry recently when he estimated it would cost the city about R700m to fix all its potholes. In May the Johannesburg Roads Agency was allocated a budget of R2.9bn over the medium term to upgrade high-traffic corridors and expand stormwater infrastructure.
The pothole crisis in Johannesburg in particular, and Gauteng in general, seems to have caught the attention of the provincial government, with Gauteng finance MEC Lebogang Maile allocating R9.7bn to the roads and transport department for 2025/26, which rises to R28bn over the medium-term expenditure framework.
In September 2024, the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) announced it was injecting at least R50bn into the economy for road maintenance and upgrades.
Sanral has been on a campaign to improve SA’s roads, including refurbishment, rehabilitation and the eradication of potholes.
With TimesLIVE
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