According to one of the affected residents, Ms Dikeledi Digwamaje of house no. 1664 in Batswaneng in Khutsong, they were at home on Friday night after the past days’ heavy rain, when they suddenly heard a loud rumble of ground falling in. They went to check and saw that a sinkhole that has caved in about two years ago has caved in much deeper. This previous sinkhole, which is situated two yards from their house, caused a section of the busy Sompani Road to be closed.
They called the West Rand District Municipality’s disaster management section, and officials arrived at approximately 21:00. While walking out with them the group was just in time to see the toilets which stood only metres from the back of their house disappear into the depths of another sinkhole.
This new sinkhole is only metres away from the first sinkhole.
“You couldn’t even see a piece of the toilets because it went down so deep,” she says.
What scared Digwamaje even more though is that the one side of this new sinkhole is just outside her bedroom window. The one corner of her family’s house, right next to where her bedroom is situated, is almost touching the side of the new sinkhole.
Deep cracks appeared in her bedroom floor and it has also started to sag. There are also cracks in several other rooms in their house, as well as the four other houses closest to the sinkhole. One of these houses is newly built. The street in front of their homes that lead to a butchery is also cracking.
The disaster management officials advised the Digwamaje family to move out of their house immediately as it is unsafe. People in the area all blame the Merafong City Local Municipality for the problems.
“They knew about this previous sinkhole for the past two years but did nothing about it. They also did nothing about the water and sewage leaking into it. After it fell in, they told us that they had bypassed the water so that it would not leak further into the sinkhole. This left us without water for months. After this new sinkhole fell in our water went off again, which shows that the pipes were still connected. They had also not bypassed the sewage,” says Digwamaje.
Residents of the affected houses believe that the new sinkhole probably occurred because the water and sewage was still leaking underground.
They are extremely unhappy about the municipality’s attempts to pacify them by offering them RDP houses to move to.
“Their neglect caused these sinkholes. They know that most of our houses are much bigger and smarter than the RDP houses and we built it ourselves. Our house has four bedrooms and we will not be able to fit all our things into an RDP. The people who were moved to RDP’s when the first sinkhole fell in also still do not have title deeds as they were shoved into houses that actually belong to other families,” the residents complain.
They want the municipality to move them into some of the houses in Carletonville that Sibanye-Stillwater donated to the municipality earlier this year.
“The municipality said they cannot do this as there are now illegal occupants in these houses and they will first have to follow the legal route to get them out. They showed us the donated houses in Boundary Street,” says Digwamaje.
The Herald also went to check some of the donated houses in Boundary and Zinnia Place. All these houses were now renovated and painted and some even have new walls around them. At one of the houses an extension is being built. The Herald asked the municipality who are currently staying in these houses, but they refused to comment. They also did not answer any other questions about this issue.
