The photograph above is roadworks from a burst water pipe that happened over 18 months ago and as you can see the job has never been completed. Someone stuck a traffic cone in the biggest part of the hole so we all avoid it and don't make the hole any bigger. This when it rains becomes a slightly bigger problem and the house close by fills the hole in each time and now no one drives over this area.
This by all accounts is a failed country where nothing ever seems to work. Even the potholes that are repaired only last a month or two if there is no rain and reappear due to the quality of workmanship so once they appear they are basically a constant.
On Saturday I had a good feel story that I thought I should share as not everyone is a bad apple and there are good people around. I had driven to the butchery on Saturday afternoon only to come out after shopping to find both of the cars back tires flat. Kind of screwed as there is only 1 spare tire and being a Saturday afternoon close to closing time I needed some help.
I drove the car up the road to the closest service station where I asked if they had any ideas. They have puncture repair kits on hand which I had no idea was a side hustle and apparently most service stations have someone who can do this.
The one tire had 2 nails and the other had what looked like a bolt, but still had managed to puncture the tire. The guy never took the tire off the car and pumped air into the tire and just wet the tire to see where the leaks were whilst the car was parked. He then took a screw driver to make the holes bigger and with another tool inserted what looked like a long piece of sticky rubber. This he did for all 3 holes and within less than 10 minutes the tires had been repaired.
This is what he used and it cost him R10 (15 sticks for R48) to make R400 so he has a good side hustle.
I am not going to trust it for a long road trip, but it did the job and the tires are just fine holding air. The cost was R90 per repair so R270 or roughly $15 so I gave him R400 ($22) because he deserved it and saved me the hassles if he was not around. A job well done should be rewarded. I was blown away by the friendliness and speed of the fix which I have never seen this type of puncture fix before and it works so well and is really quick. Obviously if the tire wall is damaged then you have no choice, but to change the tire.
The roads are so bad here these days and far worse than 5 years ago when we thought they were bad as they are next level bad now. You have to know where the pot holes are or you will burst a tire or damage the suspension. I know where they are having driven these roads locally and you often see cars pulled over having done some damage driving through one of them.
I still cannot believe it has been 18 months and no one has finished repairing our road. Maybe it has been left as everyone expects the repaired water pipe to leak again which is often the case.
