Crawdaddy's restaurant wins damages from City of Tshwane over sinkhole incident

The City of Tshwane is liable to pay damages to Crawdaddy’s restaurant in Centurion after the food outlet suffered a loss in profit due to a massive sinkhole in front of its premises.

This comes after the city faced several lawsuits - including that of Crawdaddy’s - following allegations that it dragged its heels in fixing the sinkholes that erupted around Centurion some years ago.

In 2022 and 2023, Beknor CC, trading as Crawdaddy’s Centurion, obtained court orders from the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that the city had to compensate it for the profit losses the restaurant had incurred at the time.

The judgments were obtained by default, as the city was not in court to oppose them. While it did, meanwhile, compensate the outlet, the city recently returned to court to have the default judgments rescinded.

Its reason for not opposing the claim was that it faced so many claims at the time deriving from the sinkhole crisis that this one simply "fell through the cracks". 

Crawdaddy’s had sued the city as an entity responsible for the roads in the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality area for an amount of R63,961 for loss of income as a result of the sinkhole on the corner of Jean and Gerhard Avenue.

In 2022, the court initially found the city liable for the damages. The following year, it ordered that the claimed amount be paid. Crucially, the city failed to appear in court on both occasions, despite being properly served with all court processes and notices of set down.

On the merits, it is not disputed by the city that there was a sinkhole in front of the restaurant and that, as a result thereof, the outlet suffered a loss in profit.

In 2022 and in the absence of any contradictory evidence due to the city being in default of appearance, the court found that the city was responsible for fixing the sinkholes within a reasonable time.

Further, that the city’s failure to do so was in breach of its duty of care, therefore negligent, and such negligence to have resulted in the loss suffered by the restaurant.

Although the sinkhole has been repaired in the meantime, the city denies being responsible for it or the loss the restaurant has incurred. The city alleges that the court orders were granted erroneously as the sinkholes were as a result of a natural phenomenon and none of them were because of the city’s doing.

The city, in its denial of any liability, further pointed out that the sinkhole was discovered and reported by contractors in 2017. At the time, 23 other sinkholes were reported in the region. As a result, some extensive geological drilling work had to take place to determine priority in the rehabilitation thereof.

A repair plan was finalised after 26 drillings. Based on the determination of prioritisation, the sinkhole in front of this restaurant was classified as highest priority. It pointed out that the fixing of the sinkholes is a cumbersome process. Eventually, the sinkhole was completely fixed in October 2018.

The court noted that the city blames its working arrangements, internal systems and plans, as well as insufficient budget to explain its failure to fulfil its duties to repair the sinkhole within a reasonable time.

Judge Nomsa Kumalo, in turning down the city’s application, said all the reports it is now relying on to defend its liability were available at the time the default judgments were issued. She did not accept the city’s reasons for not defending the claim at the time.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za