Residents have to watch their step, literally

Walking towards your taxi stop after a long day’s work, the last thing anyone expects is to suddenly step on air, and fall into a hole – an open manhole to be more specific.

This is not the sequence of events that Sipusiso Ncube expected when she was on her way home. “At the time the manhole was covered with overgrown grass, so one could not see it was open,” explained Ncube. She said she was very thankful for the people in the taxi who saw her fall and rushed her to a medical facility to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

“When my left foot did not find ground, I had a deep fall into the dark hole.” With one leg in the manhole and the other out, she remembered hitting her hip, back and neck. “The doctors did X-rays and checked for any broken bones or bleeding. Luckily everything came back clear,” she explained.

Her employer, Melvyn Bull, had since registered a complaint with the City of Johannesburg in hopes of getting the manhole covered again. “There are at least three open manholes within walking distance from our complex,” said Bull. With the news that a six-year-old child had fallen into an open manhole and had not been found yet, this matter hits close to home for many residents with young children.

“What I found shocking was that the City of Johannesburg’s Mayor said there was no record of the two open manholes at the park where the incident happened,” continued Bull. This motivated him to report the missing manhole covers to prevent a similar situation in Weltevreden Park.

“We reported this about two months ago, give or take, and on May 8 we received acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint, but that was the end of the communication. Nothing has been done about the missing manhole covers,” concluded Bull. The Northsider has reached out to the local ward councillor, Jacques Hoon, who said he would look into the complaint and escalate the issue.