He claims the tyre of his vehicle and the rim were damaged when he drove over the manhole.
“This is due to negligence by the Ekurhuleni Metro who I believe are responsible for paying for the damages caused by the manhole cover,” claims van Rensburg.
He wants to know where he can put in a claim against the metro.
According to a witness Buks Grobler (29) the manhole cover was pushed up by the rain water in December, but was replaced by the metro shortly thereafter.
“However, it was replaced with a lid that didn’t properly fit onto the manhole.
“This has been left too long,” he says,
He believes it will cause damage to more vehicles soon if the metro doesn’t cover the manhole with a proper size lid.
Another witness Kobus Wolmerans says this manhole cover is of great concern to all the motorists using Sixth Street and the metro shouldn’t wait for residents to report missing manhole problems.
The road is used by school busses transporting children, which he feels can have dangerous consequences.
“Children are playing in the street and children, being as curious as they are, will investigate the hole and might fall in or get hurt,” he says.
“Who will be to blame when that happens?” he asks.
Although van Rensburg’s vehicle was the first to be damages, Wolmerans says: “soon there will be more vehicles damaged or even children who can get hurt”.
Questions were sent to the metro on June 1, but no comment was received at the time of publishing.
