Community members raised their concerns after sorghum grain blocked the sewerage system on the corner of Piet Bosman and Kock streets last Wednesday, 14 October. The leak overflowed onto the hostel premises of Central Primary School and left an awful stench that extended to the Snowflake building.
Koos Pelser, the Central Primary School grounds manager, says they noticed there was a problem with the sewerage at around 08:00, as it kept pushing back into the school’s system. Upon inspection, they noticed that there was a blockage. “It was overflowing at the nearest house and spilt into the school,” he said.
Albert Botma, the owner of Snowflake, says they had experienced a problem with their sewerage a few days before but had managed to address it. On Wednesday morning, however, their drainage system was full. When he went outside to check what the issue could be, he met Pelser and learnt they were experiencing the same problem.
They went to the nearby maintenance holes and found something pouring out of one of them.
They called the respective departments at the municipality and were assisted later that day.
Albert says he was relieved that the matter was addressed as he was worried about the health of his customers and community members of Potchefstroom.

Pelser and Botma suspected that the grains could have come from King Korn.
According to Pelser, two representatives from Tiger Brands went to the school on Wednesday, 21 October and apologised for the incident. He said they had picked up that there was a problem on their side and took full responsibility.
Although the process of cleaning the mess was not pleasant, Pelser said he was glad that they had taken responsibility.
The municipality and Tiger brands were requested to comment but had not responded by the time the Herald went to print.