Merafong under fire after new ground collapse near Hlanganani Primary School

The continual snail’s pace action by the Merafong City Local Municipality to deal with ground stability problems has caused yet another crisis in Khutsong Ext 3. On July 27, sewage was streaming from yet another collapsing manhole near Hlanganani Primary School. Problems at this manhole were first spotted by community members in April when they stopped a municipal contractor from closing a nearby hole while the sewer pipe inside was still leaking.

The contractor had dug this hole open after a first manhole collapsed into the ground at the site in February. This was less than a year after a R6m repair project at the site was supposedly completed. This follows a previous scandal involving nearly R5m allegedly paid for unfinished work at the same spot, a matter that has been under investigation since October 2024.

According to residents such as Neo Malapisi, the ground around the second problem manhole suddenly sank further by July 25. A huge amount of sewage started to flow from the sinking manhole, while the ground and tar road next to it also started sinking. Another resident of the area, Thabo Sebotsa, told the Herald that his car almost got stuck in the sinking section of the tar road next to the manhole on the night of July 26.

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“I was driving when my back wheels got stuck. I thought it was only water over the road and managed to get out,” says Sebotsa. He had an unpleasant surprise when he returned to the site the next day and saw that he almost got stuck in a developing sinkhole.

Residents from the area are furious with the municipality for not acting timeously when they reported problems at the manhole three months ago. “The municipality saw this problem every time they came here, but told us that they did not have a budget to fix it. Now the manhole and sewer pipe are going to go down like the other one,” says Malapisi.

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