Mayor meets Centurion residents to quell sinkhole fears

Williams urged residents to be patient with the metro as it is doing everything in its power to fix the problem.

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams met residents of Centurion at InnJoy Boutique Hotel in Eldoraigne at the weekend following regular power cuts in the area in the past weeks.

The meeting also discussed sinkholes plaguing the area recently.

Randall attributed the sinkholes to the fact that the area was mostly on dolomite which is porous.

“The reason why the City is taking a while in dealing with the current more than 50 sinkholes is that settlements are built on dolomite. Another thing that is making it challenging is the old infrastructure, which continues to collapse.

“Pipes that go beyond a certain age need to be replaced timeously, otherwise we will be fixing sinkholes instead,” he said.

Williams said certain issues will take the municipality longer to fix as it was currently facing financial challenges. He urged residents to be patient with the metro as it is doing everything in it power to fix the problem.

Resident Albert Retief told Rekord that the meeting was informative, adding that it gave the community an idea of the momentous task the metro was dealing with.

“Having the opportunity to sit and ask the mayoral committee as well as the regional heads questions on the spot makes you realise the enormity of their jobs. Meetings of this nature are very important to give the community peace of mind that government is invested in ensuring basic service delivery is prioritised,” Retief said.

PR councillor Sean Cox said all region 4 councillors, including for Raslouw, Kosmosdal, Valhalla and Clubview, agreed that meetings of this nature needed to be regular for the councillors to stay abreast of developments.

“We agreed that similar meetings need to take place in the future to discuss solutions and interventions that can be implemented going forward to ensure that all residents receive a secure and stable electrical supply,” said Cox.

He assured residents that councillors would continue to do everything in their power to assist officials in providing proper services to residents in the city.

Cox said the interventions were crucial in the effort to establish the reason for so many power outages.

“Myself, Councillor Marika Kruger Muller, Themba Fosi and Ina Strijdom met with top officials at the Zwartkop substation. The meeting was very long but productive as we managed to restore power to all affected areas sooner than we had anticipated.”