Sewage leak not attended to for six months

Mandla Ntshangase Menziwa (50) and his wife Felicity say they have tried to report this sewage leak, that runs next to their house for about 100m, for six months with no response from Ekurhuleni.

“We first tried to report the matter when it was still a small leak, but now it has grown into this massive flood and still they are not doing anything about it,” says Menziwa.

He adds that when he got through one time, the operator did not want to provide a reference number.

“We can’t even open our windows in our house because the stench gets so unbearable.”

The Menziwas pointed out the manhole where the sewage was spilling from and said that there are three other manholes in the street that don’t have covers.

He explained that he covered up the one on the corner of his house because he says a lot of people pass by the house and he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.

“We also don’t want the dogs to get hurt if they fall in there.”

Themba Gadebe, spokesman for Ekurhuleni says the municipality only received the inquiry on the March 5 and that the blockage was opened on the same day.

“We, however, did not have this on our records thus we could not attend to it with urgency due to no reference,” he says.

“Manholes are being stolen, and we do our best to replace them when they are reported.”

Ekurhuleni has since resolved to use a different type of manhole cover which has no scrap metal value.

“We will replace them now that we know about them, the blockage was caused by household goods which were thrown into the manhole and the spillage will be treated with lime.”