Resident blames metro for cracked house wall
The resident had to build a channel at his own expense, to divert water to prevent further damage to his walls.
A Soshanguve north of Pretoria homeowner blames the metro for the cracks on his wall after it failed to fix leaking pipes on his property.
Albert Nthoke said a hole had emerged in his yard because the underground water pipes are leaking.
“The municipality failed to repair the leaking pipe for six months and that caused my wall to crack,” Nthoke told Rekord.
WET WALL
He said the wall became too wet.
“My wall as well as the wall separating the neighbour’s property has serious cracks and it is ready to fall down at any time.”
He said he was worried that it would hurt or even kill children playing in the yard when it falls.
“The delays of Tshwane to fix this have led me to send my child away as I am scared that he might be injured when the wall collapses.”
LEAK STARTED IN NOVEMBER
Nthoke said the underground water pipe leak started in November and had been a headache since.
He told Rekord that he reported the matter several times and sent emails asking for help which he only got now.
“After several attempts of calling for help, I always got a reference number but no assistance till this month.”
He said he incurred costs building a channel to divert the water.
“I had to spend money aimed at feeding my family to build a water channel so that the water can flow away to prevent further damage to my cracked walls.”
He said he needs a permanent solution, not a patch up of the pipes only to burst again soon.
The leak was temporarily fixed on Monday morning.
“As a long-term solution the metro will look into removing the connection pipes from the yard,” said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.
Mashigo said it was discovered that the leak was coming from an old, galvanised connection pipe that used to supply water to the house opposite Nthoke’s.
Mashigo said the leaking pipe was no longer in use.
“It appears that when the water meters were relocated outside the yards by our contractors, their connection pipes were never removed and capped,” Mashigo added.
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