Click on photo to enlarge. Mr and Mrs Visser stand in front of the huge crack that has ripped through the foundation of their house in Lyttelton Manor. The other photos are of their neighbour's badly damaged house."I don't know whether I should laugh or cry", joked Tjitske Visser as she and her husband happily obliged to pose for a photo. They were remarkably composed, considering that about 15 metres away, their neighbour's house has partially collapsed, presumably due to a sinkhole, over the last three days.
"If my house had been built 5 metres closer to that side, " said Eddie Visser nodding towards his neighbours property, "it would have also collapsed."
According to newspaper reports Visser's neighbour, a Mr Danie Els, noticed the first crack appearing on Thursday last week, and then the foundations started sinking on the Friday. The Els family were told to move out of their house by the municipality on Saturday. The perimeter walls collapsed on Sunday and the other walls fell over yesterday.
When I was there this afternoon the municipality was busy cordoning off the area, which looked like the aftermath of an earthquake, with fences and barbed wire.
There seems to be some contention as to whether the damage was caused by subsidence or a sinkhole (what's the dif?). Lyttelton is built on dolomite as is most of Centurion (southern Tshwane) and sinkholes are common.
Links: Gautrain sinkhole "a wake-up call"
Ground swallowing Pta house
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5 comments:
Oh my, this is really sad for them. What a shame.
Yes, it is very sad for both sets of people. I don't think their insurance will cover the damages.
The Els family only bought their house a couple of years ago and have spent a lot of money renovating it.
The ground is so unstable around the house I wonder what will be done to stabilise the area.
Shouldn't the railway people pay for the damages?
Hi Steffe, no Gautrain has nothing to do with this incident. It is probably due to the dolomitic substrate. I just put the Gautrain link in because it relates to the problems with the dolomite problem in the area as a whole.
What a terrible thing to happen to a homeowner!
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