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WATCH | Taking the plunge: Cousins swim in Joburg hole to protest lack of repairs
- Mitchell McQueen and Connor Sapire filmed themselves swimming in an open repair site in Fourways.
- Johannesburg Water began fixing the pipe a month ago, but allegedly did not return to complete the work.
- The cousins made headlines in 2020 when they swam in a pothole in the same area.
Mitchell McQueen and Connor Sapire have filmed themselves swimming in an unrepaired hole in Lonehill in Fourways, Johannesburg.
The cousins claimed Johannesburg Water last attended to the site a month ago, with no further repair efforts being made.
The site is the scene of a burst water pipe that has been left unattended.
“It has been a month. They started the construction, and they never came back, so now there is a huge hole filled with water right by our house,” McQueen told News24.
The cousins filmed themselves taking a dip as a form of protest because “even if we try calling – which we have – they say they’ll come but they don’t,” said Sapire.
Sapire, who is seen swimming in the viral video, estimated that the hole was at least 1.5m deep.
WATCH | Pot luck! These two Sandton residents turned a huge pothole into a swimming pool
“This is the second time this has happened in Lonehill,” McQueen said.
The cousins made headlines in 2020 when they turned a massive pothole into a swimming pool – a hole large enough for two grown men.
“That took forever to fix. We had to use diversions just to get out of the house” Sapire said.
They said they hoped Johannesburg Water would see their protest as “a cry for help”, said McQueen.
Johannesburg Water spokesperson Puleng Mopeli told News24 the hole was due to a tampered meter.
“The team is dispatched to attend to the query. The statement that it has been open for a month is not factual. Johannesburg Water takes 48 hours to attend to burst meters,” Mopeli said.
She said a call had only been logged earlier this week.
“We plead with customers to log queries with reference numbers so that we can attend to media queries speedily.”
The cousins told News24 they had not logged a complaint because “even if we did, they wouldn’t have come”.