Unattended water leak causes road to collapse in Vereeniging

VEREENIGING – A motorist sustained serious damage to his vehicle after a section of Rose Street in Three Rivers collapsed underneath the vehicle.

The state of the road had deteriorated over the past few months as a result of a water leak.
Vaalweekblad was told that the leak had been reported to the Emfuleni Local Municipality several times before the accident, but that it had been left unattended for several months.
Andries Nel, the motorist, told Vaalweekblad that he was en route to his house in Blackwood Street at around 12:30 when the road surface in Rose Street collapsed underneath his Renault Kwid.
Luckily the vehicle had enough momentum not to get stuck in the hole.
“I was able to spin the car out, otherwise I would have been stuck,” Nel told Vaalweekblad. The hole is about a meter deep.
Although Nel miraculously escaped serious injury, the vehicle’s wheel and suspension was however damaged.
Nel says he intends to claim for damages.
Nel told Vaalweekblad that he feels this unfortunate incident could have been avoided, had the local municipality acted quicker to repair the water leak.
According to Dalene Venter, councillor for Ward 1 of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, the water leak was reported for the first time on the 24th of May and that in four months the local municipality had failed to act to repair the leak, leading to the deterioration of the road surface.
According to Venter the same water leak was subsequently reported at least nine more times after that (after the first time it was reported).
Vaalweekblad sent enquiries to Makhosonke Sangweni, a spokesperson for the Emfuleni Local Municipality, on the same day of the accident.
After two weeks we are still waiting on a response.