‘We Are Trapped’: Floodwaters swallow villages as flooding, heavy rain batter Limpopo

Over the past five days, areas in Limpopo and Mpumalanga have been battered by incessant rain as a storm that first started over Mozambique quickly travelled into the border provinces, causing flooding that has submerged entire villages in murky brown water and damaged roads, bridges and critical infrastructure.

The floods have had devastating consequences for communities that live in areas close to the Mozambican border. At least two children have died, and homes have been swept away as communities contend with the unrelenting rains, which are projected to continue well into the weekend.

The Greater Giyani Municipality is one of these regions where the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force have had to rescue community members who were trapped or swept away by the rising waters.

A desperate search is currently under way for a five-year-old boy, Siyanda Boloyi, who was reported missing early on Thursday, 15 January, in Mbaula Village outside Giyani.

Authorities are racing against time, braving perilous conditions, to locate the boy, who was swept away when he and his mother attempted to flee their home as it was engulfed in water.

According to SAPS Limpopo spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba, the mother was rescued by the SANDF after being trapped against a tree, but the child could not be located.

While it has been reported that the child has died, Mashaba told Daily Maverick that the reports were false and the search was ongoing.

Communities cut off

Detailing the impact of the flood to Daily Maverick, Eron Mabunda, from Munghonghoma Village in Mopani District Municipality in Giyani, spoke of villages isolated because the floods had turned “the roads into rivers” and cut off electricity supply.

“We are seriously under siege, we are trapped. From the day the floods started, we can’t leave the village. Even just to access necessities, like going to the shop to buy food. Something as small as buying bread, we can’t even do that. Even if you want to use a generator to operate lights, your refrigerator and all these things, we can’t even get petrol to do that because the roads to the filling station are closed,” Mabunda said.

He added that while the village had two clinics that were tending to the sick and injured, emergency services could not access his village.

“Ambulances cannot get to the village or outside the village. Even if someone is about to die, that person cannot be taken hospital because there is no way out.”

Mabunda said he was concerned about clinics running out of medication because replenishing supplies would be near impossible.

While the government had deployed emergency services to vulnerable communities, his village had not received assistance to date, despite calls for help.

Mabunda, who had only just begun arranging a funeral for his mother who died recently, said that he could not bury her with dignity because of the damage the flooding had caused.

“Today, as we speak, we were supposed to receive the body from the mortuary, but we can’t because the mortuary vehicles cannot come into the village. That causes us more pain because we can’t even bury our mother,” he said.

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Childcare centre braces for impact of flooding

Speaking to Daily Maverick, Jeannette Lesisa, the manager of Holy Family Care Centre near Tzaneen, Limpopo, detailed what the organisation, which cares for at least 60 children who have been orphaned or abandoned, had experienced over the past week.

“The water was coming from everywhere. It was not just the rain, but also from underground, through the bricks and the tiles. The girls’ dormitory even got flooded because the water was coming up through the tiles. We had no choice but to evacuate them. Most of the place is flooded; its still flooded even now,” Lesisa said.

The care centre manager said they had to wait for the rains to stop and the water to clear before the children could be returned to their dormitories.

She added that the untarred roads leading from the offices to town were bad on a good day, but the heavy rains had further deteriorated their condition, making it nearly impossible to navigate them.

“Our cars [a Quantum minibus] have been getting stuck on the road. We could not even fetch staff on Thursday because the roads were so bad. We have been short-staffed; you can imagine how difficult that is when you have to take care of 60 children in these conditions,” Lesisa said.

The SAPS and SA Weather Service have warned people to steer clear of roads and overflowing rivers, but with food and other resources running low, Lesisa said that the care centre’s driver had no option but to brave the damaged and dangerous roads on Thursday to make sure the children at least had something to eat in the morning.

“The driver took the risk to go to town because we needed bread and cereal for the children in the morning. Thankfully, by the grace of God he managed to get back safely. It was a risk, but we had to take it,” she said.

Red Level 10 alert remains in effect

The South African Weather Service warned that additional heavy rainfall, forecast at between 100mm and 200mm over the next 24 to 48 hours, could worsen flooding. A Red Level 10 alert remained in effect, signalling the danger of rapidly rising rivers, flooded roads and low-lying areas, and possible community displacement.

The national weather service said forecasts indicated an improvement in conditions from 19 January, which should allow river levels to drop and waterlogged soils to begin drying out. DM