Slow response by city staff slammed

IT was a case of deja vu for motorists on Friday when traffic was disrupted after a large sinkhole developed at the the intersection of Stephen Dlamini (Essenwood) and St Thomas Roads, after a waterpipe burst under the road. Five years ago, the same thing happened and an unlucky motorist landed up in the sinkhole.

Last week however, it was the sterling efforts of local councillors and community members who stepped in to control traffic at the intersection while they waited for authorities to arrive to take over.

Councillor Jethro Lefevre, who arrived at the scene after being notified by the community, said he joined fellow councillor Martin Meyer and Kevin Dunkley of Save Our Berea, who were already busy directing traffic around the rapidly expanding hole.

“It was chaos, the traffic was backed up and Martin and I directed traffic while contacting Metro Police and SAPS to attend the scene. We were standing where the tar was collapsing to prevent cars from going near to the hole. SAPS arrived within 45 minutes and started to close off the bottom end of Stephen Dlamini Road,” he said.

Local businessman, Bob Humphreys and his staff from La Bella, together with other community members, used crates and cones to demarcate the danger zone and watched in horror as some of the crates and cones disappeared into the hole as the road continued to collapse.

Lefevre said it took Metro Police an hour to arrive and when they did, the shift commander got out of the vehicle and screamed at the men helping direct traffic to move back.

“He had just arrived on scene and was being so aggressive towards us, telling us to get away, as we were encouraging people to take photos. The three of us kept more than 200 motorists alive!

“His behaviour was unacceptable. I have written to Metro Police about this verbal abuse and the fact that Metro Police arrived on scene so late. We thank SAPS for their assistance, however,” said Lefevre.

Dunkley said when he arrived at the intersection a Metro Police van cruised up the road and turned the corner into St Thomas Road. He said he thought the driver was going to pull over, but he just continued on, despite the fact traffic had already become a problem as motorists tried to negotiate their way around the pool of water that had formed in the intersection. He said there was no way the officer in the vehicle could not have seen what was happening.

Dunkley also said there was no excuse for the behaviour of the officer who spoke to the three men later on.

“Just because Save Our Berea supports our Metro Police, does not mean that we will not be critical of rude and abusive behaviour. I am doing a report to Metro Police management. I was targeted because I had the temerity to not accept being spoken to in that manner. There were numerous witnesses.

“When I conveyed to this officer that it was us that had done the job of protecting the public I was questioned whether I had training to do that. When I said no, he said we shouldn't have done it When I pointed out that one of the citizens involved was an off-duty woman SAPS police constable, he rudely dismissed it and said she had no authority as she was off duty ,” he said.

Dunkley said he felt what the officer was suggesting was that in any emergency, the public, in the absence of the people whose job it is to be there, should stand back and allow a car to drive into a sinkhole or a person to fall into the hole.

“Any person falling in at that time with the force of water would have drowned. Somebody driving into the hole could have been killed. This was a far worse situation than the previous incident at this intersection where a car did drive into the sinkhole.

To be threatened with arrest and then the threat of being charged with intimidation because I said I would report the matter is in itself serious intimidation of the public. The two councillors are submitting complaints as they were witness to the whole incident,” he said.

Lefevre said a team from the water department took more than an hour to arrive.

“I contacted the department and said we needed urgent intervention as we were losing millions of litres of water. When the vehicle arrived, it went to the wrong intersection and I had to run to tell them where they were needed.

“They also didn't know what was going on and I had to show them where to turn the water off. We are experiencing water shortages and drought, and it takes them an hour and 10 minutes to respond to a major water crisis,” he said.

Despite repeated calls and emails, eThekwini Municipality and Metro Police had not responded to requests for comment by the time of going to press.