The police were called on to play an unusual role this week, driving 4×4 vehicles across a heavily flooded bridge in Farmerfield, Salem, to bring food, mattresses and blankets to around 50 households in Farmerfield, near Salem.
The police were called on to play an unusual role this week, driving 4×4 vehicles across a heavily flooded bridge in Farmerfield, Salem, to bring food, mattresses and blankets to around 50 households in Farmerfield, near Salem.
That community was without food for days and could not get out from their area because of the floods, said Makana's municipal spokesperson Mncedisi Boma.
They were some of the people to whom the municipality's Joint Operation Committee, comprising councillors and representatives of government departments, has been bringing relief in the past week.
They took food parcels, 34 mattresses and 40 blankets to this community, as their beds were soaked after the rain, Boma said.
He said they were assisted by the South African Police Service, who took heavily laden 4x4s across the heavily flooded bridge to Farmerfield.
Social Development brought in social workers to evaluate the living conditions of the community. We also got assistance from the department of health and they delivered medication for patients who were stuck in Farmerfield, Boma said.
Closer to home, Zolani location was one of the areas in Makana hardest hit by the floods.
Grocott's Mail accompanied the relief team yesterday as they assessed the flood aftermath and spoke to people who had lost clothes, furniture and even entire homes.
Cikizwa Mvemve said the floods had left her and two of her children without a roof over their heads.
I have lost everything in the flood. My house has been destroyed with the furniture and all the food, said Mvemve.
She doesn't even have a bed to sleep on.
Mvemve's mud structure was swept away by the floods on Saturday 20 October. The one-roomed home was not strong enough to withstand the floods. Neighbours came to her assistance, giving her and her two sons a place to sleep and food to eat.
I don't have anywhere to go, because the small shack that my eldest son sleeps in is very small, said and emotional Mvemve.
They both sleep in this shack, and I sleep at the house of one of my neighbours.
This shack also is full of water, but the municipality gave us [plastic sheeting]to put on the floor.
Mvemve, a packer at Checkers supermarket, had to take leave from work to sort out the damage in her home.
She sleeps at the home of neighbour Nomakhaya Qomfo – although Qomfo's home is also badly damaged, and very crowded.
There are 13 of us living in this house and it is getting worse. When it rains we can't sleep because the water fills the whole house. The children's bedroom is worse because it's starting to fall, she said.
Qomfo grew up in the mud-structured home and fears it may not last if it rains heavily again.
I wish we could have another house. I don't care where it is, as long as it is not flooded. We are always anxious when the rain starts because we don't know what will happen next, she said.
Siyabonga Kubalo's home seemed to be the worst affected. The house was so badly damaged, it hardly seemed to make a difference whether one was inside or outside. Kubalo bought material to build on to the small mud-structure last month, but had to postpone the planned extensions.
I had to fix the current rooms with the material I'd bought, because I could see that the house would not survive the rain.
But the same day I fixed it, the house collapsed, he said. The young man showed Grocott's Mail his mud-stained bed and blankets.
I had to throw away most of my clothes, he said.
Boma said the municipality's disaster-response section had pumped out water from flooded houses.
More than 400 sheets of plastic were distributed to affected families to cover their belongings. The areas most affected were informal settlements, especially mud-structures, Boma said.
The municipality had early estimated the damage to be approximately R158 million.
