Car sunk by municipal inefficiency

WHEN the municipality recently fixed a pipe in Landdrost Street between Akrikaner and Heeren streets, they never resurfaced the road. This wouldn’t have been a problem except that further up the street on the corner, there has been a leaking pipe that has created a stream down the gutter for three years (according to a nearby resident).

So, late on Saturday afternoon, when a resident reversed a car out a driveway and over the unsurfaced gutter, over which the stream had been flowing for a day or two, the car sank into the resultant mud, right up to its axles and sump.

And there it stuck.

The resident was not amused, and called a tow truck to pull the car out. This, it was threatened, would be for the account of the municipality as would any damage sustained to the car.

Will the municipality pay? Time will tell.