Almost a year after Khutsong residents on the West Rand were due to be relocated because of safety concerns over huge sinkholes, the project has hit a financial snag.
Only 840 families of the 26,583 living in the area, almost 65% of whose homes had been classified as high-risk and not suitable for human settlement, have been relocated to a safer area.
But even with the increased risk of sinkholes forming because of the soft dolomite rock underground, the Merafong municipality this week said “serious funding constraints” had brought the project to a halt.
It needed more than R6.549bn to relocate the families and for infrastructure development, the municipality said.
Spokesperson Bridgette Mkhontwana said that would include R87m for water reticulation for the relocation and a further R345m for bulk sewerage for the new settlement.
“Due to serious funding constraints on the Merafong operational budget and capacity, equipment and material challenges, intervention from the district and provincial disaster centre was required to address the immediate health and safety of the Khutsong residents directly affected by the newly formed sinkholes.”
Mkhontwana said no geotechnical studies or environmental impact studies had been done before the town’s establishment in 1960 as a mining town, as they were not required at the time.
She said the first survey conducted in the area was in 1980, but the number of sinkholes had increased over the past three years.
“Since 2016, the situation has drastically deteriorated. New sinkholes/dolines formed at several locations in old Khutsong which severely damaged internal water supply pipes to Khutsong extensions and sewer pipe networks that drains via outfall sewers to the Khutsong Waste Water Treatment Plant,” Mkhontwana said.
She added the formation of the sinkholes affected normal service delivery, as they caused severe damages to water pipes, sewer pipes, infrastructure and property.
She further added that due to the sinkholes, the municipality experienced water shortages, water leaks and sewer leakages almost on a daily basis.
Housing Development Agency spokesperson Katlego Moselakgomo said the rest of the affected families would be relocated to Zone 5, about 2km from their old homes, in Khutsong once the teams were satisfied that the planned housing units were complete and met the minimum requirements.
For the current financial year, Moselakgomo said they were allocated an operational budget of R43m to deal with the relocations.
He said the budget would be used to conduct detailed risk profiling of the geological and human settlements risks in Khutsong.
“The HDA has secured a donation for various pieces of land measuring 391ha to enable the planning and readiness of additional new settlement areas. This is in transfer stage, and preliminary planning has commenced,” Moselakgomo said.
However, Agnes Makhutle, 76, has refused to move from the house she has called home for the past 43 years.
Last year, while sitting outside her house in Emaxhoseni, Khutsong, the earth began caving in just metres from her front gate, leaving a gaping sinkhole.
“I am prepared to die in my house rather than to move into a small shack,” she said.
Makhutle said nothing had been done by the municipality other than just cordoning the sinkhole off.
“Every night I sleep knowing one day I might find myself buried in this sinkhole,” she said.
Makhutle, who has extended her home to an eight-room dwelling over the years, has been offered an RDP house in Ext 3, Khutsong, about 2km from where she lives.
According to the Council for Geosciences, about 25% of Gauteng, as well as parts of Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape, was underlain by dolomite.
Residents Negotiating Committee deputy chair Margaret Piloni said many residents, especially those in formal residences, refused to leave their homes.
“People have spent thousands renovating their homes ... now they are asked to move to smaller houses. This is not fair,” Piloni said.
