Family fed up with municipality’s inaction

THE Mthiyane family from eSikhaleni say they are struggling to get the uMhlathuze Municipality to repair their house.

They claim the municipality is trying to avoid taking responsibility for damages caused by the municipal contractors repairing a burst pipe in 2014.

One of the family members, Thami Mthiyane, said the house is surrounded by underground water and sewer pipes.

‘One of the water pipes burst in February 2014 and our house was flooded. The city sent a contractor to do repairs, but they caused more damage by digging all over the place. This has caused the house to start cracking,’ Mthiyane said.

He claims that windows and walls are cracking badly and ‘the house might fall any time soon’.

‘They left live wires exposed, posing a danger especially to children.

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‘One of the city officials offered to give us a RPD house as replacement of our house, but we view that as an insult.

‘We spent a lot of money buying this house. It is an insult to compare our five roomed house with a RDP house.’

Mthiyane said that as a family they want the municipality to rebuild their house.

‘When we raised this with the municipality, one of the officials told us that they do not have the budget to do so.’

An attempt to obtain comment from the city spokesman Mdu Ncalane was unsuccessful, but Ward 19 Councillor Sipho Zulu said he was aware of the matter.

‘The problem is that there is lots of underground infrastructure under that house. We went there with municipal officials to do an inspection.

‘It is not clear how it came about that the house was built on top of such infrastructures, but we are aware of the matter and I will follow up to determine what progress has been made,’ said Zulu.

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