Brandon Pretorius, Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor for Ward 97 in Brakpan, is outraged that another sinkhole has appeared along Main Reef Road near the Plastic City informal settlement.
“I have over the past few years constantly warned the City of Ekurhuleni of the effect of the increased illegal mining activities in and around the informal settlement. However, the municipality chooses to be reactive and place the lives of residents at risk,” he said.
“Over the past weekend another sinkhole formed on Main Reef Road just metres from the existing sinkholes which earlier this year almost caused the road to collapse.
“This is yet again no surprise and was expected as this is the fourth time in approximately a year the road has collapsed or sinkholes have formed.”
Pretorius told the Herald the roads department has since temporarily fixed the “long-term problem”.
“The department has said that they will monitor the road to ensure residents’ safety at all times.
“They have also raised their frustration with regards to the continued illegal mining within and around the Plastic City area directly affecting the roads within the vicinity.
“The mayor of Ekurhuleni, Mzwandile Masina, and fellow MMCs have over the last three years been at the settlement and seen the extent of all the illegal activities in the area yet nothing gets done to prevent these illegal activities.
“This is now a major concern and could lead to serious injuries if not death as the municipality continues to temporarily fix the road and not do anything about the cause, which is illegal mining.”
According to Pretorius, the direct cause of the road failures has been confirmed to be illegal mining and other illegal activities carried out by some of the occupants of the informal settlement.
Read: Main Reef Road on brink of total collapse, warns councillor
“At numerous locations along the road one can see the tunnels that have been dug to extract gold,” he said.
“Some tunnels stretch as far as the width of the road and are proven to be hazardous.
“In January last year the roads department said they appointed a consultant to look at the entire road to investigate the total damage caused by the mining.
“This report has not surfaced and one wonders if a consultant was ever appointed.”
Earlier this year the entire road was resurfaced.
“This was after the municipality was warned that this would be fruitless if they did not attend to the illegal mining activities,” said Pretorius.
“The roads department will be kept under pressure if the numerous other relevant departments do not start doing their work.”
Pretorius labelled the Department of Human Settlements and EMPD as two key departments.
“The occupants of the settlement need to be relocated as a matter of urgency due to the dolomitic grounds on which they are living and the EMPD, together with the SAPS, need to be more hands-on when it comes to preventing illegal activities in the settlement, including illegal mining.
“People need to be arrested.”
Pretorius assured residents he will continue to apply pressure on the municipality to ensure they are held accountable.
“The actions of the mayor and the city manager of Ekurhuleni is unacceptable and irresponsible. They should take accountability for this and start taking action to ensure the cause of the problem is resolved.”
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