UPDATE: East pensioner still waiting for metro to fix her yard
“I don’t care what the cause is, all I want to know who is going to fix the problem.”
The Mamelodi victims of a burst reservoir say they want to negotiate compensation directly with Tshwane metro mayor Solly Msimanga.
The Tefo family home, perimeter wall and driveway in Mamelodi East section SNS were damaged earlier this year when the reservoir burst and bureaucrats have sent them from pillar to post since.
“We can’t even park our car in our yard because the water damage was so bad,” Steven Tefo told Rekord.
“Maybe if we talk to the mayor himself then the problem will be attended to.
“Officials arrive, assess, promise to assist then are gone never to be heard from again.”
Homeowner and pensioner Joyce Tefo said the home perimeter wall collapsed during the flooding of her home and the neighbour’s home.
“Officials keep on making empty promises.”
She said the reservoir regularly overflowed sending water down to her home in Thibela Street.
“I do not even feel safe here anymore because the metro cannot tell me when next the reservoir will overflow.
“One day we will be washed away by the water coming down the mountain from the reservoir,” she said adding she had made her local councillors aware of the problem since it started in 2005.
“I have spent a lot of money trying to fix my yard…I built a wall to prevent the water from reaching the house, but the water keeps knocking the wall over.
ALSO READ:
https://www.citizen.co.za/rekord/148482/mams-pensioner-blames-tshwane-metro-for-back-injury/
“There is nothing more I can do except pray the house is not washed away the next time.”
Steven Tefo said as the last resort, he was planning to go see Msimanga directly “because bureaucrats kept sending my mom from pillar to post”.
He said technicians had said “an automatic stopper” which shut the feeder pipe when the reservoir was full, was stolen and that was why it overflowed.
“We don’t care what the cause is, all we want to know who is going to fix it.”
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo had since advised the family to file a claim for damages against the metro.
He said the family must go to the satellite office in Mamelodi ask for the form to fill in if they wanted to be compensated.”
He said the metro would check if it had ever been made aware of the damage to the reservoir.
But Steven Tefo said they had been to the metro’s legal department where they were given a form to fill but were still waiting for a response.
ALSO READ:
https://www.citizen.co.za/rekord/171125/pensioner-wants-metro-to-pay-for-damage-to-her-mamelodi-home/
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