I have lived in De Waal Street, Brackendowns, since 1981 and last year the municipality destroyed my driveway, including whole lengths of my grassed property.
Supposedly, this was done to install a new cable which was to supply the street lights, which, in my opinion, was not necessary as all lights were in working order.
On Monday, January 16, I came home to find a trench dug in front of my wall (around two metres long) and on Tuesday the trench was getting even bigger, along with a terrible looking pole installed. Digging is now taking place in a circle around the pole.
I went to find out what was going on and ask the Telkom contractor what it was all about and apparently they were looking for a cable which should go across the road (underneath the main tar road). When I asked him where he thought the location of the cable may be, he could not (or perhaps would not) tell me.
I asked him if he has a cable detection device, but he said no as, according to him, they are too expensive.
The question is, are we paying to create labour hours or is it just insufficiency and ineptitude from the contractor hired by Telkom? Never mind what the front of my property is going to look like when they’re done; it’s looking extremely bad at the moment. With the right tools, this job would have been finished ages ago (as it should be). Maybe in a week’s time they will still be digging, who knows.
Karl Schläger
The RECORD approached Telkom and the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality for comment but neither responded.
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