The City of Cape Town must pay a Kraaifontein man R25 871 in damages for a sewage spill, the Public Protector has ordered.
|||Cape Town - The City of Cape Town must apologise to a Kraaifontein man and pay him R25 871 in damages for a sewage spill, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela has ordered.
Ivan Kumwenda’s house and its contents were damaged when a sewerage pipe burst outside his property on December 2, 2010. After the city fixed the pipe, Kumwenda asked it to compensate him for the damage, but the city refused, according to Madonsela’s ruling on Wednesday.
She said the city’s response to her provisional report had been defensive. The city had argued that the sewage spill had occurred because of a blocked drain.
“The city’s repudiation of the complainant’s claim for damages was unjustified in the circumstances and is accordingly improper,” Madonsela’s report says.
The city must give Kumwenda a written apology, pay him damages and monitor whether problems with drains outside his home had been solved, Madonsela said.
Cape Times