A three-bedroom house in Khutsong, near Carletonville, caved in as a result of a sinkhole on Friday, the Merafong municipality said.
Spokesperson Seabo Gaeganelwe said nobody was injured as the occupants were relocated two months ago. ”We are happy that we saved lives by having evacuated occupants of the affected house in July,” he said.
Joseph Ramorola (36) said the house had belonged to his mother. ”We thank God that the house sank when she was not there; it could have been worse,” he said.
Ramorola said the house started to crack earlier this year, and his mother had reported it to the municipality. Municipal engineers inspected it and gave her a letter instructing her to move out. ”It was sad to move out, without knowing where to go … we spent R350 000 on this house and now this,” he said.
When the stand was bought in 1999, no one had informed them about the sinkhole, he said. His mother and brothers now live in a building that used to house a commando unit.
The area around the house that caved in remained unsafe, the municipality said. Gaeganelwe said geologists who went to the area maintained that residents should be moved to safe land.
”The area is now cordoned off, but that is not enough to stop children from moving in to satisfy their curiosity. The potential loss of human life is a possibility which has to be averted,” he said.
As a result of the current rains, more dangerous sinkholes are likely to develop, he said.
A survey commissioned in 1997 by the municipality found that 90% of Khutsong fell within extremely high-risk zones. It effectively means that 90% of Khutsong ”is not, and was never, suitable for human settlement”, according to Gaeganelwe.
Khutsong was established in the 1950s and no study was conducted to establish whether it was suitable for human settlement, he said.
In 1964, miners and a family of five disappeared into a sinkhole in Carletonville and were never found again.
A sinkhole is a cavity in the ground caused by water erosion. — Sapa