Less than 30 days before voters choose the people who will run their municipalities, the Mpumalanga High Court has delivered a costly reminder of what can happen when basic service delivery goes unattended.
Thaba Chweu Local Municipality has been found 100% liable for damages suffered by motorcyclist Anton Steenkamp after he crashed on a pothole-riddled road in Mashishing, formerly Lydenburg, nearly nine years ago.
Acting Judge Zodwa Gumede handed down a judgement on Monday, finding that the municipality’s negligence caused the December 9, 2017, accident.
Steenkamp fractured his left patella and tibia after losing control at the intersection of Viljoen and Potgieter streets.
The court heard that the road was badly damaged, with potholes and loose gravel.
Perhaps most painfully for the municipality, it admitted that it was responsible for maintaining public roads and owed residents a legal duty to keep them reasonably safe.
Municipality’s defence rejected
Its attempt to place some responsibility on Steenkamp also hit a pothole.
The municipality argued that he had seen the dangerous surface and nevertheless rode through it.
But Gumede found that Steenkamp had been confronted by a broken road surface across his path and merely chose what he believed was the safest route through it.
Gumede found:
“Choosing the least dangerous way through a hazard created by the defendant is not consent to be injured by it.”
The municipality also failed to prove that Steenkamp had been speeding or negligent.
Damages still to be determined
It must now pay 100% of his proven or agreed damages, with the amount still to be determined, as well as the costs of determining liability.
The judgement comes as municipal service delivery is about to face a different test.
On November 4, voters will choose councillors responsible for overseeing the roads, water, refuse removal and other everyday services closest to their homes.
For Thaba Chweu, a pothole left behind in 2017 has taken almost nine years to deliver its own service-delivery report card.
This one came stamped by the High Court.
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- The Mpumalanga High Court found Thaba Chweu Local Municipality 100% liable for the damages suffered by motorcyclist Anton Steenkamp after a crash on a pothole-riddled road in December 2017.
- Steenkamp fractured his left patella and tibia when he lost control at the intersection of Viljoen and Potgieter streets in Mashishing due to the badly damaged road with potholes and loose gravel.
- The municipality admitted responsibility for maintaining public roads and owed residents a legal duty to keep them reasonably safe but unsuccessfully tried to partially blame Steenkamp for the accident.
- Acting Judge Zodwa Gumede ruled that Steenkamp was not negligent or speeding and that choosing the least dangerous path through the hazard was not consent to be injured by it.
- The municipality must pay 100% of Steenkamp's proven or agreed damages, with the amount yet to be determined, plus the costs of determining liability.
