Floods: North West declared disaster area by municipality

Residents of Ramogodi were forced to abandon their homes.

Picture for illustration purposes. A motorist’s vehicle partially submerged car in Soweto, 9 December 2022, after it was swept away by flash floods on Friday morning, after heavy rains overnight. Persistent rain affected various parts of Johannesburg. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

Ramogodi ward 17 in the Madibeng municipality in the North West has been declared a disaster area by the municipality after floods swept away houses and roads at the weekend. Many residents of Ramogodi, a section of Mmakau village under Kgosi Saki Motsepe, were forced to abandon their homes due to heavy rains, which swept away road infrastructure and damaged newly paved streets.

Contractor’s fault

Rain continued to devastate the area this week. Distraught residents had hoped the declaration of the state of disaster would improve the situation, but they still blame the Madibeng municipality for the state of affairs. They claimed the municipality hired contractors that did shoddy work on road infrastructure and that the street paving was also badly done.

One resident, who worked on the project but preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, said he was not paid for his work and the municipality had not helped him and the subcontractors get money owed by the contractor.

He said the contractor did a bad job and left big rocks in front of yards and gates.

5 kidnapping suspects arrested as 19-year-old man rescued

“The job they did was substandard but the municipality failed to check the quality of work before they paid the full amount to the contractor,” he said.

Bokaba Construction was appointed by the municipality to complete the project after it was allegedly left unfinished by the previous contractor, Mossbrown Investments from Limpopo.

Bokaba Construction was also expected to pay what was owed to subcontractors by Mossbrown, which left the job due to a payment dispute with local subcontractors.

‘Substandard work’

However, some residents said Bokaba did not do a good job either. But the company was paid the full amount. “The water flooding nearby houses is because of substandard work.

The excavated soil is dumped everywhere, including next to people’s houses, not in the dump site,” said a resident. Municipal spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala promised to get comment from a director in the municipality, but did not.

NOW READ: Floods: Body of 16-year-old Mpumalanga teen found in dam