A Port Elizabeth woman and her five-month old baby have been taken to Dora Nginza Hospital after falling into a manhole.
The man hole cover had been removed - most likely stolen and sold for scrap metal.
Piet van Rensburg says his daughter and grandson were on their way to the Algoa Park Clinic when the incident occurred on Friday.
Van Rensburg says his daughter was on the corner of Voyle street in Sydneham making her way towards a taxi when she and her baby fell into the manhole.
He said his daughter broke her ankle and the baby boy injured his leg.
Van Rensburg says he can't lay a complaint against the municipality but hopes that his daughter will, once she has recovered.
"It's so deep that just her head was sticking out and she held the baby in her hands, they couldn't even see the baby and the baby also got hurt. I'm waiting for my daughter to come home, I can do nothing about it. I want her to go to legal wise, she is not going to leave it just like that." says van Rensburg.
Roland Williams of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality acknowledged that the theft of manhole covers is a problem and appealed to community members to report missing or stolen manhole covers.
"We do have a problem in our city as it is in many other cities with people stealing manhole covers and all other forms of metal. We are desperately trying to get to the root of the problem because we have scrap metal dealers who unfortunately trade in this, we are very sorry about the incident that has happened."
