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.
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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.
“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.
