Pretoria - An Atteridgeville man who lost his home in December when a truck carrying concrete crashed into it is finally happy and hopeful of moving back into his house as repairs and compensation nears.
Dennis Dibetso has been renting a one bedroom apartment in Atteridgeville after a truck driver of a hardware company lost control and rammed the truck into the three-bedroom house on December 18.
Debetso said the crash happened untimely before Christmas and left nothing to be salvaged from the kitchen, dining room and the second room. Bricks fell and broke furniture in the empty house.
Positively, Dibetso yesterday said he was happy and hopefully things are coming together as he will today meet the owner of the hardware company for discussions about his losses to reach an agreement.
He said the bank that financed the house still owns the home so they will be fixing it and have given him funds to pay his rent while they figure out how to put the house back together.
“This means the owner of the truck will be liable for my furniture because the way the collapse happened I lost my entire kitchen, dining room and the second bedroom. The gentleman has been present throughout as my neighbour’s home was being fixed because they too suffered some minor damage.
“This thing really did affect our living arrangements because I was living with my nephew at the time and my lady would visit me from time to time. Lucky nobody was in the house when the crash happened. It was just unfortunate that the driver’s passenger was injured from the impact.
“However, over and above, I am happy that there is some hope that someday this year I could return to my home,” said Dibetso.
Dibetso said he and his nephew slept outside for the first few days after the crash because it was not safe to go inside the remaining structure, and it was not a good idea to leave the remaining furniture unguarded, in a community with a lot of young nyaope drug addicts.
“We actually received the mattresses and blankets from the City of Tshwane, which we were grateful for. Last weekend, MMC for Roads and Transport Dikeledi Selowa also visited and we appreciate that. The City does not get involved with what happens inside the yard but can help with damages outside to things like meter boxes.”
Pretoria News