Dispute over muni damage
APhaphamani woman whose house was partly destroyed by a municipal trailer almost three years ago is planning to take the municipality to court for its alleged failure to pay for damages caused to her home and appliances.
Thembakazi Mofu says she is taking Makana Municipality to court over their alleged failure to pay damages that were caused by a trailer that was unhitched from a municipal truck and plunged into her house in 2013.
The municipality gave Mofu a temporary house and helped to fix parts of her mud house after the incident. However, Mofu said she was financially responsible for rebuilding her mud house.
“All the municipality did was give me that temporary house, which I don’t even stay in and they just put plastic over the damaged part of my house,” she said.
She says municipal workers who visited her house tried to put together some of the broken pieces, but in the end she had to rebuild the damaged areas herself.
Mofu refuses to stay in the temporary structure that was provided by Makana because she claims her mud house is better than the structure. “I can’t stay in that thing because it’s very cold in winter and very hot in summer,” she said.
Mofu took time to show Grocott’s Mail some of the damage caused by the trailer to her home. She says her washing machine, freezer, cupboards and tables and other appliances were damaged by the accident and she has never been compensated for her losses.
In 2013 Grocott’s Mail reported that there was pain, shock and tears when Mofu saw a Makana Municipality trailer plunge into her house.
At the time Mofu said she was talking to her children and some insurance salespeople when a trailer was unhitched from a Makana water truck and started rolling towards her house.
“I went to my room for a minute, I heard people screaming and I went on to look out the window. It was a trailer coming straight to my house,” she explained.
“It happened that my children saw the trailer and ran away from the sitting room.”
Nobody was injured in the accident, but Mofu’s furniture and appliances – including a table with four chairs, a fourburner stove, a kettle, a washing machine, a door and pots – were destroyed.
Mofu’s electricity meter box was knocked loose by the impact the trailer made when it hit her house. The meter box is hanging dangerously on the wall.
She says attempts to get the municipality to fix her meter box have yielded no success.
“They told me that there is nothing they can do about the electricity box,” she said.
Attempts to get a response from municipal spokesperson Yoliswa Ramokolo were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.