Last week, a section of the sidewalk in front of houses 13, 15 and 17 in Onyx Drive, situated near the Carletonville Taxi Rank, has started sinking.
“It started three days ago and the municipality came to fix it yesterday,” one of the affected residents, Mr Linda Cele, said on Monday.
Cele says he called his ward councillor about the problem. “He immediately arranged for the road in front of the affected sidewalk to be cordoned off.”
The subsidence is where a municipal contractor replaced a section of the sewerage pipeline last year. Although residents of the area were promised that the work would sort out all the sewage problems they had been experiencing, some yards in South Street are still flooded by sewage from time to time.
“I worked at AngloGold Ashanti and bought this house myself. My neighbours also own their houses. If this place is sinking, it could give us problems. This new development is an emergency that cannot wait until the end of the lockdown,” Cele complained.
The Herald took the issue to the Merafong City Local Municipality on Tuesday.
“A subsidence has occurred at the same place where the sewer pipeline was replaced. The consultant who did the work last year was informed to investigate and repair the problem urgently. The subsidence probably occurred as a result of rain and the sagging of previous excavation,” a municipal spokesperson responded.