Durban school principal Louis Arde saw news of the recent Johannesburg street collapse while on holiday in the US.
Then he came home at the start of the new term to see the road in which his institution, Sycamore Academy, is situated looking as if it too was going to fall apart soon.
He doesn’t suspect gas. Rather sewage. And that’s because a semi-functional Sycamore Lane, between Esther Roberts and Umbilo Roads, is not a new problem.
In early June, the Independent on Saturday ran a story about how parents, pupils and staff had to walk carefully around a revolting flow of leaking sewage that made it necessary for shoes to be sprayed and brought a lingering whiff into classrooms.
eThekwini Municipality sent a repair team but by the end of the July holidays, their efforts appeared to fix the symptom rather than the source.
‘’It’s everything that it was plus the road starting to collapse,” said a desperate Arde.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo said: “The procurement process to effect this repair is under way. Work should start in the next two weeks.”
The Independent on Saturday