Although contractors were seen fixing a broken pipe inside a sinkhole across from Hlanganani Primary School in Khutsong this week, the sewerage problems in this area are worse than ever.

On Monday afternoon, workers from municipal contractor Malindo Construction were busy building a new manhole inside the large open hole near the school.

Employee Willie Ramaila explained that his team started working at the site about three weeks ago.
They have successfully repaired the leaking sewer pipe, which is believed to have caused the previous manhole to collapse into the ground. The team is now focused on rebuilding the sewer infrastructure inside the hole.

However, Ramaila did not know when another manhole, which has started to sink closer to the main road past the school, would be repaired.

Despite the progress at the school, residents living about 1km away in Khutsong Ext 3 are still struggling with massive sewage leaks.

“This is really bad. We cannot live like this,” said one of the residents, Welcome Skosana. He expressed his frustration, pointing to streams of sewage bursting from manholes and flowing straight through and past his yard.

Several of his neighbours’ yards have also been flooded with waste, which flows down the road and into a nearby stormwater drain.

Sewage from various other yards continues to stream down the road as well.
The Herald raised these urgent issues with the municipality on Monday, but no response had been received by the time of printing.