SINKING CITY: Orange Grove sinkhole victim (81) languishes as Joburg defaults on court orders

Sherley Markowitz (81) was forced to move from her Orange Grove home when a municipal stormwater culvert collapsed. Six years and multiple court cases against the City of Joburg later, she still can’t return.

Six years after a collapsed municipal stormwater culvert turned her Orange Grove, Johannesburg, property into a sinking hazard and forced her from her home, 81-year-old pensioner Sherley Markowitz remains trapped in an indefinite state of displacement.

Markowitz and her husband had purchased an older house in the suburb and completely renovated it, including turning the storerooms at the back into a hairdressing salon for Sherley. For years, they had experienced a minor damp problem in the house, dismissing it at the time without realising that the municipal stormwater drain beneath was already slowly collapsing.

Recalling the terrifying moment the disaster struck in late 2020, Markowitz said:

“I was in the house one day when I heard a loud noise – I thought one of the gutters was falling off the wall or roof and then, to my astonishment, I saw that half of my salon and half the back garden was collapsing before my eyes. Had I been in the salon, or if the gardener had been outside, we could have been injured.”

The collapse destroyed not only her property, but her livelihood, ending her home-based business which had been providing an income to supplement her pension.

Yet, despite a succession of binding high court judgments ordering the City of Johannesburg to remedy various aspects of the situation, the municipality has repeatedly failed to act. Instead, the City is spending millions on rent for her in a temporary flat, storage fees for her goods, legal fees and 24-hour security guards for an abandoned, unsalvageable house.

Chantelle Gladwin-Wood of Schindlers Attorneys took on the case for her on a pro bono basis, resulting in several high court applications, before different judges, each exposing deeper layers of municipal default.

Reflecting on the psychological toll of the past six years, Markowitz admits to a sense of fatalism, noting that there was little she could do on her own against the municipal machinery. She is deeply grateful for her legal representation.

“Thank goodness for Chantelle [Gladwin-Wood], who has taken on the case pro bono. The City wanted to give us a room in the CBD, and she intervened.”

Despite having a roof over her head for now, Markowitz lives in constant anxiety.

“I am the piggy-in-the-middle. I feel powerless. My landlord wanted to sell the rental unit I am living in and then changed her mind when the council increased the rent substantially, but she could again decide at any time to sell.

“We have been enquiring, and no estate agent will even look for us the moment they hear the City of Joburg is paying. Our goods are in storage, and recently, the City did not pay for four months. The owners were about to auction off my possessions.

“We don’t know from day to day where we will be or what will become of us. We no longer have roots or our own home. I’m 81 and should be enjoying the home I worked for all my life. The mental anguish and stress should also be compensated.”