Kgatleng District Council will finally compensate about three hundred families after their houses were destroyed during road construction almost ten years ago.
On the other hand the council is struggling to source funds estimated to run into millions of Pula to compensate the affected families.
Kgatleng council chairman Mpho Morolong confirmed that the council has lost the case.
He said even though the council has the liberty to appeal it has decided not to appeal and will resolve the matter amicably.
He revealed that they do not know where they will get the money as the council is struggling to source the funds for the compensation.
“At this juncture I am not sure how much money is needed but the exercise will be too expensive for council,” he said.
He explained that more than six years ago, there was a construction of an 18 km internal road in Mochudi which led to some residents paving way for the multi million Pula project.
Morolong said during the construction some houses cracked and the contractor refused to compensate those affected.
He said both the council and the contractor were at loggerheads and the matter was sent for arbitration where the council lost dismally.
Morolong said the council is busy assessing those affected and the extent of the damage.
He stated that they could have completed the assessment last December but there were challenges because they could not find some of the residents and that alone delayed the progress.
Morolong said once the assessment is completed, they will be in a better position to know how much money will be needed.
Spokesperson for the families Patrick Ditshwene said they are aware that the council has lost the case and it has already met with the representative of the affected families about the latest development regarding the matter.
“Because we do not trust the council we have engaged private engineers to assist us to conduct an assessment and assist us to come up with the exact costs,” he said.
He said is should be noted that it was not an easy road as at first the council ill treated the affected families as they never kept their promises.
He said they do not want to be given money rather the council should rebuild the affected houses adding that “sadly some houses have sustained cracked foundations and they are in bad shape.”
He stated that their hope is that the council must fast-track the compensations as the aggrieved have waited for too long.
