“Our house started cracking last month,” Ms Nondlela Msiwa of house No. 594 in Khutsong Xhosa Section said on Monday, pointing to huge cracks in the walls. Some are so big that a man could push his hand through them.
Near the back door, the foundation is sinking so badly that it has completely separated from the walls above. For this street in Khutsong, the Msiwa family’s ordeal is nothing new.
In June 2016, the Herald first reported that residents living around house No. 590 in Khutsong’s Xhosa Section had started noticing cracks in the ground of the yard about two months before. They contacted the municipality, which sent workers out to find the problem. They discovered that a water pipe on the sidewalk was leaking. Although they dug a hole around the leaking pipe, the pipe itself was never repaired.
By 2017, the problem had grown to such an extent that a massive sinkhole had caved in between houses and several had to be demolished. The municipality did not compensate the homeowners for their losses but appointed a contractor, Morad Construction, to fill up the sinkhole and repair the road above it.
Other families in the next street accused Morad of botching the job as another sinkhole had caved in at a yard only metres away from the construction area within months of the contractor leaving. Msiwa and her family believe that Morad and the municipality are also to blame for their problems. They say the water leak that started in their yard is likely also to blame for their sinking house.
“We called the municipality to come and look at the leak. The workers who came said it had started because Morad had not sealed the pipes off properly. They said they could not do anything as it was the contractor’s fault and they had now left,” said Msiwa.
An opposition party councillor who is trying to assist the family, Mr Welile Fihla, believes the municipality should compensate the family for their loss by giving them one of the houses in Carletonville that Sibanye-Stillwater had recently donated to the municipality.
“According to the law, the municipality should oversee the work of its contractors. Now, they want to wash their hands in innocence and only offer them a small RDP for their four-bedroom house that is going down. This cannot be allowed,” he says.
The Herald took the matter to the municipality on Tuesday. “The cause of the sinkholes on individual properties is not unique. Khutsong is generally dolomitic and, therefore, water ingress can induce the decline formation in any area within Khutsong. Thus, the municipality cannot be specific about the cause of sinkholes. The municipal council resolution to attend to sinkhole affected people will apply,” a municipal spokesperson responded.
The municipality acknowledged that the mining house had donated 10 houses to Merafong.
