Local news

Farmer wants municipality to take responsibility for damage caused by floods

Joshua Maanaso, a farmer from Bonn village, demands that the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) take responsibility for the damage to his family's farm.

“In 2019, during a road construction project by the GTM in my village, a stormwater pipe was removed and we were told that after completion the pipe would be replaced. “However, the pipe was never replaced and this resulted in our house and a section of our farm flooding as we live along the main road. “The water from the road flows into our home and has caused damage to household furniture of more than R100 000.

We also lost all our crops.” He says he planted butternuts with an estimated profit of R30 000, but the recent rains have washed his crops away. According to him, he has been engaging the municipality for a few years, and at one stage an official visited his farm to assess the situation. He says in the last year, he has been in constant communication with the engineering department, but to no avail.

Rain water covering the Maanaso household and farm.

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“I need the problem to be addressed as my business and life are at a standstill, we are currently in the rainy season, and as a farmer, I should be celebrating, but I can’t.” Vutivi Makhuvele, GTM’s media liaison officer, told the Herald that they are aware of the situation and have allocated a bulldozer to the ward through the ward councillor to address the matter.

Crops washed away by flood water.

“Regrettably, the initial complaint remains unresolved. We will reassign a bulldozer to address and resolve this specific complaint promptly,” Makhuvele says. Maanaso responded by saying in November last year a bulldozer was working in the ward, but it was used on other projects and not on his farm.

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Emelda Tintswalo Shipalana

Tintswalo Shipalana, a journalist for the Letaba Herald, has been in the media industry for over a decade. She started her journey in radio, but ended up in print which is her first love. She joined the Herald newspaper as a cadet in 2016, where she graduated with a journalism qualification from the Caxton Training Academy. She also has a qualification in Feature Writing from the University of Cape Town and a Media Management qualification from Wits University. She is completing her BA Communication Science degree with UNISA. She sleeps well at night knowing she is a voice to the voiceless and her work contributes to promoting local talent, businesses and service delivery. Her love for her community keeps her working hard every day.

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