Bloubosrand couple see their driveway destroyed by City Power
Residents rue destruction of their driveway after City Power digs trench along road without warning them first.
Diana and Reinhard Bergemann gave up countless hours and spent a small fortune beautifying their driveway only for City Power to destroy much of it.
The Bloubosrand couple decorated their home’s entrance on Drommedaris Avenue with pebbles, cacti and other plants, only for City Power to dig up the concrete, chop plants down and leave a large ditch in the ground, with mounds of dirt and debris left behind.
This was during a cable replacement that had to be laid on the road in early July. “They didn’t even warn us they were coming to dig through the driveway. After the job was done the workers began filling the trench but when it was time to leave, they said they would come back and fix it all up,” complained Diana.
“That was a month ago and the fault we logged afterwards was changed to closed.”
The couple left the debris in the hope that the entity would come back one day and restore the driveway. “It is common decency and professionalism to tidy up after a job and leave things as you found it,” Reinhard said. “It actually broke my heart to see the driveway destroyed like that.”
After a month the couple turned to the Randburg Sun in desperation. This publication contacted City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena, and on the same day, he promised the entity would sort it out the very next day.
“City Power is aware of the incident logged by the customer, and a team has been dispatched to start work tomorrow, August 4,” he said.
The work had however not been done by the time of going to print.
Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck said a driveway outside a resident’s property belongs to the city, so the resident beautifies it at their own risk.
“It can be dug up at any time. In theory, entities are meant to reinstate tar/paving etc. But they rarely do and it’s so badly done, you have to redo it anyway,” he explained. “My advice is to reinstate it yourself and keep your sidewalk improvements easy to maintain and repair.”
Ward 101 councillor Ralf Bittkau agreed that after working on them, drives have to be “reinstated to the way it was”.
