The sinkhole on Brickfield Road.
Image: Supplied
Overport residents were left shaken on Tuesday after a vehicle became trapped in a sudden sinkhole on Brickfield Road, intensifying concerns over the city’s ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure.
Witnesses at the scene reported that the road appeared to have partially collapsed without warning, causing a car to sink into the cavity.
Fortunately, no serious injuries were reported, though the incident has sparked renewed criticism of municipal maintenance practices.
Active Citizens Coalition councillor Imtiaz Syed said this highlighted deeper systemic issues affecting many of Durban’s older wards.
“Water infrastructure repairs are a major issue in most historical wards that have not seen infrastructure replacement since the new dispensation. With that, the areas that have been historically planned seem to be neglected by the city, which evolves into many leaks across these wards.”
Syed pointed to repeated infrastructure failures in Ward 31 along Peter Mokaba Ridge as an example of ongoing neglect.
“In the last financial year we suffered 69 leaks on the same line running from St Thomas to North Ridge. The repairs are being carried out by up to sometimes four separate contractors with no safety protocols or diversion or detour markings.”
He warned that poor coordination and lack of safety measures by contractors are placing motorists at risk, particularly on busy roads.
“This has to be resolved as the city’s contractors are not performing in line with basic safety, especially on high traffic roads. Some roads and repairs go untarred for months, which leads to many vehicles being damaged.”
Referring to the Brickfield Road incident, Syed said inadequate warning measures may have contributed to the accident.
“In this particular incident a contractor had excavated, repaired and demarcated with a piece of obsolete pipe and red barrier tape, which coincidentally in rainy weather and high traffic will never be noticed.”
He also raised alarm about another dangerous situation developing on Alpine Road.
“Another disaster is imminent on Alpine Road: a concrete barrier is placed in the centre of the left lane because the road edge collapsed due to a lack of storm water drainage. Note that this road was newly-tarred about 10 months ago.”
Beyond immediate safety concerns, Syed linked the issue to broader financial and policy challenges facing the municipality.
“The issue of non-revenue water, which this city gives away for free to informal settlements and costs paying citizens about R148 million a month, eats into the budget for infrastructure repair, which is in fact the cycle of collapse that we see.”
He proposed a potential solution to address both infrastructure funding and equitable service delivery.
“These issues can be resolved if the municipality measures the water supplied to informal settlements and bills the same to the Department of Human Settlements so that relief can be given to two parties: citizens on the increase in water tariffs and funds that could be utilised to repair infrastructure,” said Syed.
The eThekwini Municipality did not comment at the time of publishing.