FOR more than five years now, the Ekurhuleni Metro’s water department has failed to repair broken water pipes at a residential complex in Kempton ext 4.
The years of water leakage have caused damage to the wall foundation and pavement at one of the units of Saxon Lofts, causing it to sink into the ground.
Unit owner, Gerda Blignaut, has been struggling for years to get the department to repair the main water supply for two of the complex’s units.
In March this year, Blignaut received a letter from the complex’s body corporate, giving her notice until June 30 to have the wall and pavement fixed, as it went against the standards and rules of the complex.
“But I sent the body corporate a letter explaining that I have been trying to get this issue resolved for many years now, but the water department has still not fixed the damage. The department even saw and signed the letter, but they did not have an official stamp,” a fed up Blignaut explained.
“I am also very concerned as we have small children and animals in the complex and this is a great risk for them.”
The body corporate of the townhouse complex is not able to attend to the issue as the damaged water pipes fall under the common property area, which is to be maintained by the metro.
The same issue had been experienced by other Kempton Park residents but was repaired by the department late last year. These repairs didn’t last long though because the problem started again soon afterwards.
A representative from the operational office at the municipality paid Blignaut a visit on June 1. EXPRESS contacted this official, who assured us that the issue would be resolved by the last week of July.
Ekurhuleni metro has not responded to EXPRESS’ enquiry, which was sent on May 27.
