Sinkhole-affected families may not recover all they lost

The sinkholes are on Hospital Road, Skhosana Section, Katlehong.

The decision followed the completion of another phase to resettle the displaced families.

According to the CoE spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, the city rehabilitated a sinkhole after temporarily relocating the families to safety.

He explained that to make the land suitable for the reconstruction of the damaged houses, the city had to backfill the sinkhole. Now, geoscience engineers are assessing the work done before rebuilding the houses for the affected families.

“This should come as news for these families,” said Dlamini.

“It is unclear when we will start with the rebuilding, but we believe the engineers will assist in this regard once they have completed their assessment of the area.”

He said the larger part of the Katlehong township was mostly built on land with a high risk of sinkhole formation.

“The current by-laws prohibit building on such land. Therefore, residents are encouraged to submit their building plans or renovation applications to the city to avoid the costly mistake of building on dolomitic land,” he said.

The City Planning Department (CPD) is at most Customer Care Centers in Ekurhuleni.

However, the devastated residents were frustrated by the CoE’s lack of communication and failure to keep its promises.

Kathorus MAIL engaged with two affected families.

Skhumbuzo Ngobeni (48) said they could see and appreciate that government was trying to assist them, but they had serious challenges with the process.

He said most houses did not belong to current owners because they inherited them from their elders and explained that their main problem was the municipality asking them to provide the plans of the houses.

And should they fail to submit the plans, the municipality would build them RDP houses, irrespective of how big their houses were.

“If your house had 10 rooms, they would build you an RDP, he explained.

He lived in a four-roomed house with his family, and his extensions included five backrooms and a garage.

“Our elder built these houses a long time ago. The municipal bill confirms there is an evaluation showing the house’s value. The CPD should have the plans because these houses are old, and the plans were submitted to them,” said Ngobeni.

“But we are told those plans were lost to fire when the municipal offices at Hlahatse Section burnt down. Where will we find the plans for houses built in the 80s by our parents?” he asked.

“That is where we have challenges, and when we speak, the municipality threatens not to rebuild our homes. The community still has a challenge on whether the backrooms they built and developed over the years would be rebuilt.”

He said the municipal pipe, a maintenance fault, caused the sinkhole.

He said the issue started in 2019 when their houses developed cracks in the walls, and water started spilling from the pavement.

“When I reported the issue, the municipality came to assess on a Sunday. They dug a hole and left it open.

“On their return on Monday, the pipe had burst, and the water was leaking. It took them two days to close it. During the assessment, others found it was caused by a sinkhole,” he said.

Another affected resident, Mzyfani Ndaba (32), told Kathorus MAIL he lived with his two-year-old son, sibling and partner.

He said he was happy the municipality was assisting them more so because he did not have the financial muscle to rebuild.

Ndaba was unemployed and had two income streams – rental income and his computer repair business.
Unfortunately, having to move killed both businesses, and he could no longer operate because of a lack of space, and most of his clients lived in Skhosana Section.

This also meant his five tenants had to move, resulting in a further loss of income of about R 4 000 monthly from rental.

“I struggle to do many things, and I did not think the rebuilding project would take this long. The initial time frame of six months to rebuild has passed, and there is no feedback,” said Ndaba.

He said that in the meantime, the government could help them by considering them for any job opportunities closer to them so they could make ends meet.

“We are not sitting at home because we want to, we are looking for opportunities, but it is difficult,” he said.

Ngobeni shared that when the city moved them, it told them it would compensate them so they could pay rent where they temporarily settled and provide food parcels because the municipality understood that most families depended on rental income. However, to date, there has been no progress.

He explained that the project’s duration was supposed to be six months. It began last November and was supposed to be complete by April.

He said the municipality had never called a meeting with the beneficiaries to report the progress.

Dlamini said an enquiry was forwarded to the CPD for comment.