During a storm on October 21, strong winds caused a tree outside Mina Hira’s Selection Park residence to fall over and damage her palisade fencing.
Ekurhuleni metro’s parks department removed the tree, after which Hira went through the procedural steps of submitting three quotations, along with pictures and other documentation, to have her fence repaired by the metro.
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She was shocked when she received a letter on November 17 from the metro’s claims technician, Thabiso Mofokeng, on behalf of the insurance and risk management section, stating that her claim had been rejected.
“Kindly note that none of Ekurhuleni’s employees worked on this premises, so no negligence was found on the municipality’s side.
“No request was received to remove the tree.
“No documentation or reporting of the tree that could be a possible threat to the public was received,” the letter stated.
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Hira says it is completely unacceptable as there was no way for her to predict that the tree would fall over.
She says the broken fence is a safety risk but she, luckily, has other security in place.
“I cannot understand why the claim was refused when the municipality has public liability insurance in place for such unforeseen eventualities,” says the ward councillor for the area, Ramesh Sheodin.
Hira says she will repair the fence when she has funds available and has since requested the metro to cut down other branches to prevent future problems.
