Family wants payment for damaged furniture

A family in Nkobongo is calling for Sembcorp Siza Water (SSW) to compensate them for water damage to their furniture caused, allegedly, by a burst underground pipe.

Thokozile Maqiyaane said that water had been flowing through her yard since 2013. To begin with they thought it was just a natural underground stream.

“It got bad in 2014 when my son spent a lot of money cementing the yard. He had to destroy all that to make a channel for the water to flow past the house,” said Maqiyane.

She said that the water eventually flowed into her house and damaged the structure and her furniture. SSW was called to check out the problem and they took samples to check if the water was from their pipe.

“They came back and confirmed to us that indeed the pipe was a SSW pipe and in the beginning of June they came to fix the problem,” said Maqiyane.

SSW spokesperson Khosi Matenjwa said they were aware of the issue and they were investigating it.

“So far all evidence indicates there was water damage in this home but not from the latest burst. The photos show evidence of damage long ago. Our staff also reports that the water ran past the house. The photos do not indicate any water marks on the newly plastered walls, which is always a dead give away that flooding took place and at what level,” said Matenjwa.

The Maqiyane family maintain that they did not report the issue to SSW in the first place because they thought it was a natural fountain and not a SSW pipe. They kept on re-plastering the walls in the hopes that water would not flow into the house again.