MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Kholofelo Morodi has appealed to the national government to grant the City of Tshwane Metro R200 million to repair sinkholes in the Centurion area.
“Centurion has issues with sinkholes so we are here to make an assessment of the top five sinkholes in the area so that we can get attention from the national government so that funds can be released to fix the said sinkholes, this as we don’t have funds as the City of Tshwane to do so,” said Morodi.
She said the sinkholes must be declared a national disaster.
She said there are approximately fifty sinkholes in the area but the 5 worse ones are in the Lyttelton area.
She said the fact that the area is dolomitic, coupled with water leaks in the area might be the cause of the sinkholes, but be that as it may, they as the Metro would wait for a geologist to come and give an enlightened opinion in this regard.
“We have identified 5 worse sinkholes in Region 4 and a bridge has been built to the amount of R6,5 million in order to prevent the expansion of one of the sinkholes,” said deputy director roads and transport engineering geologist Ashika Sudu.
“The City of Tshwane currently doesn’t have the budget to timeously repair all the 59 sinkholes that have been identified and all in all the cost of repair may add up to over R250 million,” she said.
She said quite a few properties have been affected by the sinkholes and two properties have been condemned and their owners must vacate them immediately.
“Unfortunately, a hospice in the area has also been affected in that there is sewage flowing into it,” she said.
She admitted that several residents whose properties have been affected by the sinkholes have brought litigation against the City of Tshwane over the years.
“We need to carry out repairs as soon as we can over a staggered period, because each sinkhole requires individual attention and money,” explained Sudu.