Illegal car washers are still active in the city centre. What concerns residents about these activities is that they are allegedly using the municipality’s water for free to earn a living.
Concerned resident Ms Jeanette Els says she regularly sees people pour water from a municipal fire hydrant next to the road at the exit to the Shoprite centre in the CBD.
“They used a spanner to open the nut to release the water from the hydrant,” Els explained. “We as taxpayers are paying for this water and they are stealing it, washing cars, making money and they don’t have to pay a single sent for the water they use. This is unacceptable.”
She said they also used a shopping trolley to transport the water from the hydrant to the spot where they washed the cars on the other side of the centre.
According to Els, they used up to seven 25-litre empty paint cans filled with water three to four times a day.
“This totals 700 litres they are stealing each day. That is a lot of water.”
She said Shoprite said it was not within its jurisdiction to police the problem. Nelspruit Post reported last year that the manager of a building in the CBD was assaulted by car washers on the roof of the Sanlam building, when he tried to stop the man from using the fire hydrants. “They are damaging property and fire hydrants – if one of the buildings catch fire, the occupants will be in trouble,” the victim said.
“I cannot keep on replacing fire hydrants because of vandalism and neither can other businesses in the city – somebody has to do something.”
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