The Merafong City Local Municipality’s alleged misuse of funds to repair sinkholes in Khutsong has now started to raise eyebrows nationally.

The Parliament’s Select Committee on Public Petitions and Executive Undertakings visited Khutsong on October 24 after a former councillor, Jerry Ramokgoatedi, sent them a petition to look into the problems. It was the first time that they visited our area.

The group visited the sites where sinkholes caved in at Relebogile Secondary School at Khutsong and across the road from Hlanganani Primary School in Extension 3.
The Hawks are currently investigating a criminal case regarding the fact that the municipality paid a contractor almost R5m to fix this sinkhole although the work was never done. From here the group visited the section of Sompani Drive in the Tswana Section that was reopened this week after it was closed for about four years due to sinkholes.

From here the group moved to the Carletonville Police Station for a public hearing about the way that the municipality dealt with the sinkholes.

Various members of the community complained that the municipality was misusing the money allocated to fix the sinkholes, most of which had developed due to leaking municipal pipes. Previous complaints to the Provincial Government had also not led to any action.

Ramokgoatedi informed the committee of the municipality’s failure to maintain leaking pipes in dolomitic areas, which is accelerating sinkhole formation and creating hazardous living conditions.

This, he said, has led to a humanitarian crisis as homes are claimed by sinkholes, and families are displaced.

Various members of the committee grilled the Executive Mayor, Nozuko Best, over the matters to the point of her being visibly shaken as she was the most senior municipal representative at the hearing.

Following the hearing, the committee’s chairperson, Ofentse Mokae, undertook to investigate the potential mismanagement of funds allocated to the municipality to deal with the sinkholes.

Although Sompani Drive was reopened this week after a municipal contractor, Jolinkomo Trading, filled the sinkholes with rocks from the Deelkraal area, residents complain that all is still not well in this area.

When the Herald visited the site on the same day as the Parliamentary visit, sewage was again leaking near the brand-new road.

The house next to the repaired site, house no. 1665 belonging to Ramotoi Malebo, was still full of deep cracks and the open yard next to it seems to be sinking.
“The contractor said that they cannot fill under my house because they do not want to take the responsibility if it falls in,” says Malebo.

Meanwhile, only a few kilometres away, there are still several deep sinkholes that have not been filled near the old Teacher’s Quarters. At the time of the visit, work at the road past Maselwane’s Place, where there were also deep trenches, had also not been completed. There are also still deep trenches in Xhosa Section at an unfinished project to fix the sewer system

The municipality had previously promised that this project would be completed before April this year.