Gaping hole covered after months

KATHY ABELSON WRITES: I live in Dunrobin Street, Sydenham, and have a problem outside my house.

I really hope you can help me as I am coming to you in absolute desperation. I had a main water valve on the pavement outside my house that was leaking. As a concerned citizen, I called Joburg Water and reported this on April 22.

They came to fix it quite timeously and I was so impressed as people are always complaining about service delivery. A few days later, it started leaking again and I called on May 8.

Again, they came quite quickly and I was again a happy ratepayer. Well, that is when my nightmare really began. I reported it again on May 25 and they came for the third time, and, for the third time, it started leaking. I called on June 19 and this time, they dug up my pavement, replaced the valve and tied some tape around it to show the hole which, of course, can easily be seen with the naked eye.

I then called on July 3 to enquire when exactly this job was to be finished and the hole covered.

I called again on July 10 and again, nothing happened. I called again on July 14 and was promised it would be repaired by July 18. This did not happen. I called again many, many times with no success.

At one stage, during this fiasco, a truck came from the Water Department, removed the loose bricks and some soil, and drove off.

What I am left with is a big hole on the pavement which still has water leaking from the new valve, and which now has stagnant water and rubbish dropped by passers-by.

Please help us. I have a beautiful garden outside my house – which my son, who is a landscape gardener, did for me – and I have now been left with this unsightly and unhealthy mess on the pavement and in my garden.

ABELSON WRITES AGAIN: Finally, I can tell you that this has been repaired – tar, curbstone and all. Quite a patchy job, but I am most grateful that you managed to sort this out.