GEORGE NEWS - A resident of Blanco, who wants to stay anonymous, warns George residents to not be taken in by an apparent scam concerning driveway maintenance.
"We are situated in Blanco, and on 17 December afternoon at about 15:00 a lady called my mother to the gate, saying they are a company offering tarring / repair services for driveways," said the resident.
According to the resident there are two women and two or three male workers.
"They offered to fill the holes and cracks in our driveway with a tar sealant, and pour concrete to secure the gravel in our double parking area for R3 000 cash only, if we let them work that day. My parents are pensioners, and requested time to think about it and said they should come back in the morning, but they were persistent and said they had to return to Worcester later. They then said they were working at a house up the road too, so my parents went and had a look and they were also busy with the gravel there. My parents agreed to it as it looked legitimate, and they took their time cleaning and preparing the area.
"Eventually at 5 o'clock the one male worker returned and said they were ready to start. My parents said it was now too late in the day, and again, they insisted that they do the job the same day. They asked us to go inside and close the doors and windows, because the poison they were going to put down for the weeds and the tar smell was bad. This ensured we could not see what they were actually doing. Within 15 minutes they came to the door and said they were done, and asked for their money. They said they had thrown the special dry tar powder in the driveway (which actually looked like just soil when we peeked out the window) and have secured the gravel with cement. Everything was wet and we could not see what exactly had been done, but it looked filled in. They insisted we stay inside and not walk on anything as it needed two hours to dry.
"They took their R3 000 cash and left as quickly as they could. When we checked later, it was in fact not tar that they had layered the driveway with, but simply mud mixed with a small amount of something else. They had hardly poured enough cement on the gravel, rather just sprinkled a small amount over and flattened the gravel so that while it was wet, it had the appearance of being cemented in. My mother promptly went looking for them, but they were far gone already. She stopped at the other couple's house, and their gravel also had the appearance of being wet and cemented. They had charged them R1 800 for this. The lady gave the cellphone number that they had given her and we tried calling it, but the phone number did not work."
The resident said on Monday they tried to contact the people again but the phone was switched of.
She said people need to be warned of this and be vigilant. She asked other people who had had similar experiences to come forward and report them.
They have not reported the matter to the police.
Southern Cape police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie said he is not aware of the incident or the alleged scam. It hasn't been reported to the police. He said people who find themselves in such situations must report it to the police so that it can be investigated.
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