MBOMBELA – With more rain expected and the cost of damages already estimated at millions of rand, the premier of Mpumalanga, Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, has moved to declare the province a disaster area. The provincial Disaster Management Centre is in the process of this declaration.

With some areas remaining inaccessible, the extent of damage to roads and infrastructure is most likely to increase. What could be ascertained was that the City of Mbombela had borne the brunt of it.
This was evident after Mtshweni-Tsipane had visited some of the affected areas following the seemingly endless rain that had started late in January.

The premier acknowledged that proper planning had not been conducted.
“Some infrastructure is old to an extent that it could not carry the water load that was coming through. Probably, our planning did not include a proper drainage system, but it is a lesson as we move ahead and plan our roads going forward,” she said and added that plans are already afoot to repair the damage.

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“We are working with our municipalities and together we are busy assessing the damages. And once we have consolidated everything, we will start fixing the damaged roads, bridges and houses that were destroyed by the rains,” said Mtshweni-Tsipane.

Even though she did not give timelines as to when the repairs would start, Mtshweni-Tsipane promised that government would move with speed to start rebuilding.

Since the start of 2021, it is estimated that at least 27 people had drowned in the province – nine of which was a result of the recent flooding. Two people remain missing and six have been rescued.

In the meantime, authorities, who are still on high alert as some rivers remain flooded and dam levels are steadily rising, are monitoring the Mozambique Channel, where a current low-pressure system has the potential to develop into a tropical depression this weekend, going into the next.

Latest models suggest extreme rainfall over the warm waters of the channel. The system is expected to move over the extreme southern parts of Mozambique on Saturday and into the KwaZulu-Natal coastline by Sunday.
As these systems are notoriously fickle, the exact impact on the Lowveld is not yet known.

There is no official warning by the South African Weather Service, but communities are advised by the provincial Disaster Management Centre to keep a close eye on the situation.

All warnings remain in place.

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