George Municipality negligent & irresponsible

We live on a short public gravel road which is a cul-de-sac in Wilderness. About a year ago the George Municipality surveyed our road. They marked the points with steel rods hammered deep into the ground but with only the tip dangerously sticking out to demarcate the specific survey sites for the planners. Unfortunately the surveyors hammered a steel survey rod into our public gravel road and left it protruding about 5cm out the ground. Now all the residents in our street have been diligently dodging this negligently installed protruding steel rebar rod for many months now, and being law-abiding citizens none of us saw fit to remove the rod in the road - after all it must be official municipal business right? Well, unfortunately for me, one raining day we failed to see the rod and drove over it with our 4x4 and in so doing destroyed the tyre. We had it repaired twice but each time it deflated and unfortunately the tyre had to be replaced due to the ragged hole. The tyre cost was R3.6000, with a further R2.700 to replace the spare wheel mechanism of our vehicle which was damaged by the company removed our spare tyre during the repair. For the last few months I have been speaking to George Municipality in order to claim for the damages of the tyre only. The George Municipality have completely & utterly denied any negligence on their part and refuse to entertain my claim, even after I submitted photographic evidence of the rod protruding from the road and invoices for the damaged tyre, as well as offering details of witnesses. To be honest, I'm not surprised by the municipalities disappointing response in this regard, and none of the residents in our street are surprised either by the sheer negligence & lack of responsibility.