The Johannesburg municipality has rushed to fix a giant hole just days after being highlighted by a prominent mayoral candidate.
Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero was in Douglasdale on Tuesday to elaborate on a burst pipe that was earlier publicised by the DA’s Helen Zille.
Zille donned a wetsuit, goggles and a snorkel on Saturday and treated the excavation as an impromptu pond.
Morero confirmed the burst pipe was repaired on Sunday, later explaining why such holes were left exposed for several days.
The municipality had warned Zille a few weeks prior about using city assets and repair sites as campaign tools, a request Morero repeated.
‘Bad example for children’
Residents complained to Zille that the hole and burst pipe had been a recurring problem for the last three years.
Zille used the water-filled trench to highlight the slow and inefficient pace of repairs across the municipality, but Morero disagreed with her tactics.
“We also have to request Mrs Zille not to swim where there is a burst because there is a risk that you are encouraging children in the townships to swim when there is work that is being done with the burst pipes.
“We have seen in the past where children died as a result of swimming in either manholes or where a pipe burst has been repaired.
“We want to request to her that it is not a good example to say so. She might just have stood next to the burst pipe and continued with her political campaigning,” said the mayor.
Morero explained that reinstatements – the backfilling of areas where repairs had taken place – was a process that takes several days.
He said once Johannesburg Water had fixed a pipe, the site must remain exposed so that technicians can check over a period of time that the quality of the repair is sound.
Once Johannesburg Water confirm the burst pipe is fully repaired, then Johannesburg Roads Agency are tasked with retarring the road’s surface.
‘Off-limits to political activities’
MMC for Environment, Infrastructure and Services Jack Sekwaila on 12 March reprimanded Zille after she filmed herself gaining entry to the fenced-off Yeoville reservoir complex.
The gate was unlocked, and security guards posted at the site were ineffective, yet Sekwaila, too, was unhappy with the ‘gogo’.
“We will not allow political parties to use the city’s strategic assets for campaigning.
“Such infrastructure should remain off-limits to political activities, and we will pursue legal action against anyone who unlawfully enters these sites,” Sekwaila stated.
Zille dismissed the comments, urging the MMC to focus on the reservoir complex’s state of disrepair and not her attempts to highlight the issue.
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