Residents who stay in an area of Khutsong where several sinkholes caved in last year say they fear that the municipality has forgotten about them.

A large sinkhole started caving in after a bulk water pipe broke between B Section and the Sonderwater informal housing area in April last year. Since then, several other sinkholes appeared only metres away.

Most of the sinkholes caved in on an empty ground that used to house the first school buildings of Badirile Secondary School. The site was left empty after the school was moved to its current site decades ago.

Residents who still stay in the area say that it seems as if the municipality has forgotten about them.

“They are not doing anything at this site,” says Melusi Mbuthuma (50).

Although the municipality originally cordoned off the sinkholes with yellow plastic barricades, the sinkholes have grown to such an extent that many of the barricades have fallen into them. Because of this, residents have just pushed many of the barricades onto a heap as they no longer serve a purpose.

As the sinkholes started at what used to be a street corner, residents have no other choice but to risk their lives to get to and from their houses. At one spot, they even have to walk over a section between two other sinkholes that recently started sinking.

“We heard that the municipality wants to move all the people from here to Khutsong Extension 6,” says Mbuthuma, who has been waiting for a low-cost house since 2016.

Some residents, however, worry that many people will not be able to move out of the danger area as about 70% of those staying in this area are foreign nationals, mostly from Lesotho and Mozambique.

Everyone’s biggest worry is that they will have nowhere else to go if the municipality continues to let the sinkholes cave in further.Although the Herald asked the municipality’s marketing and communications manager, Temba Fezani, about the issue, no feedback was received by printing time.