Yesteryears
These were some of the stories making headlines in the Herald of years gone by.
This week we look back at January 29, 1993.
• Council seeks aid on mine dump headache
The Brakpan Town Council is to enlist government help in its bid to persuade Ergo to start a rehabilitation fund to restore the mine dump area on the outskirts of the town, should it cease its recycling operations.
The decision was taken at the monthly council meeting this week, when the council passed a draft recommendation demanding Ergo establish the fund immediately to finance clearing-up operations at the end of the recycling project.
Brakpan residents, already saddled with the Ergo superdump – the largest in the southern hemisphere – are livid about the heavy dust pollution.
On windy days dust clouds from the macro dump and others in the area are so thick, motorists have to switch on head lights to see where they are going.
• The riddle of the hole in the ground
Pretoria experts are conducting seismological tests on a huge subterranean cavern which appeared in Brakpan’s Main Reef Road en route to Benoni.
They will submit a report to the town council which is looking for the best solution to the problem.
An alert municipal roads department employee, Hennie van der Walt, noticed a small hole about 5cm in diameter in the road last week while laying sewerage pipes to the flea market area.
Closer examination revealed a shaft of about 5m deep leading to an underground chamber about the size of a large room.
The hole was sealed off with reinforced concrete in bygone coal mining days and could have caved in during the following years.
Read: Delving into Brakpan’s past
• Polisie kap misdadigers
Brakpan se op-en-wakker polisie het twee huisbrekers verlede week op heterdaad betrap.
In een voorval is ’n 70-jarige vrou van Brakpan-Noord verlede Donderdag om 11.30vm deur ’n man met ’n mes aangehou.
Mev A Engelbrecht van Pollockstraat het gehoor hoe haar honde begin blaf, en toe sy gaan ondersoek instel het sy niks verdags opgemerk nie.
’n Rukkie later het sy onthou dat sy swembad chemikalië in die son vergeet het.
Toe sy die voordeur oopmaak het die man haar met ’n mes aangehou en geld geëis.
Sy het begin huil en gesê dat sy geen geld het nie.
Die honde het die man aan die bene begin byt en Engelbrecht het in die huis ingeglip en die deur gesluit.
Die man was ’n vriend van die man wat in hul tuin gewerk het.
Hy is kort daarna gearresteer.
In nog ’n voorval het ’n privaatspeurder, Ian Cloete, die polisie verlede Dinsdag in kennis gestel dat iemand besig is om by ’n huis Milnerstraat, Brakpan-Sentraal, in te breek.
Adjt Dana van der Walt en adjt Sally Fourie het dadelik na die huis gegaan en vasgestel dat die inbreker in die huis is.
Terwyl Van de Walt by die voordeur ondersoek ingestel het, het die skelm by die agterdeur probeer uitvlug, waar Fourie vir hom gewag het.
Die man het weer die huis ingevlug en die polisie het die hulp van die Oosrandse honde-eenheid ontbied.
Hulle het ’n venster gebreek en die hond het die skelm onder ’n bed uitgesnuffel waarna hy gearresteer is.
• New suburb for Brakpan
Brakpan is to get a new suburb to be known as Sonneveld Extension Four.
The town council has bought a smallholding at Rand Collieries to be divided into 13 stands of 1 431m2.
Essential services are to be provided at a cost of R260 000.
The project was passed at the monthly council meeting last week.
Have a story?
Contact the newsroom by emailing: Thelma Koorts (editor) brakpanherald@caxton.co.za
or Stacy Slatter (news editor) stacys@caxton.co.za
or Miné Fourie (journalist) minev@caxton.co.za
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