AT the corner of nearly every traffic light in North Durban lie signs advertising tree-felling or tarring of driveways. For the most part, the makeshift advertisements are done by fly-by-night contractors who are not qualified. One Park Hill resident and asphalt business owner, Derek van Rensburg, has told Northglen News that the operators have been known to take deposits and then disappear with the money.
One business owner, also in the asphalt business, was too afraid to speak to the paper as he has received death threats from the illegal advertisers because he regularly pulls down their signs.
Van Rensburg said he has seen and heard some horror stories which have left home owners out of pocket and their home’s structural integrity in peril.
“They have been known to take deposits from clients and disappear, or to deliver a bakkie-load of base material, then disappear and leave the client to pay the disgruntled staff abandoned on site. The workmanship is very poor and totally amateurish, and if a dissatisfied client doesn’t want to pay, the threats to family and life start.
“It’s a total scam, free advertising, cheating clients, abusing local labour, nonsensical guarantees, cheap prices and poor workmanship.The prices quoted by them to construct a residential asphalt driveway range from R70p/m2 to R90p/m2, which is far below the going rate for a correctly built asphalt driveway. For good measure, they throw in a five to 10-year guarantee. These fly-by-night operators have no fixed address, no contact number, pay employees poorly, are not registered for UIF, they have no uniforms or safety wear and no public liability insurance,” he explained.
Van Rensburg said he hoped home owners would be wary of these types of scams and false advertising.
“I’m sympathetic to a degree because I understand it’s a tough economic climate out there. I urge residents to be especially wary of these contractors. In some cases, the contractors just throw concrete on sand and disappear. In one of the cases in Glen Anil, one of the illegal advertisers asked for a deposit to buy material. He then left 12 workers at the property to cut the soil levels.
“He came back with a small load of construction material and then came up with various excuses why he couldn’t make it back to the site. Each day the workers would arrive and continue to work, oblivious that they too had been scammed. The home owner then had to pay the workers who were left in the lurch and worked for almost four days,” he said.
