Schools were closed from Wednesday amid bad weather and flooding in the province.
Schools in South Africa will enter the second week of the academic year on Monday, with students in Limpopo having already lost several school days due to flooding.
The Limpopo provincial government closed schools in two of the hardest-hit regions, Vhembe and Mopani, from Wednesday.
The department said more than 1 400 schools could not open their doors of learning and teaching on the first day of school due to a South African Weather Service Level 9 weather warning, which later escalated to a Level 10 alert on Thursday.
Questions have been raised about when pupils in Limpopo will finally be allowed into schools, with The Citizen reporting that all schools in Limpopo are preparing to open on Monday.
“The rain is expected to subside this weekend, and as such, we expect schools to resume on Monday,” said the provincial education department’s spokesperson, Mike Phosa Maringa.
“We are working with the disaster teams in the municipality, who are assisting us to assess the damage. We will not have a blanket approach; areas are not affected the same way.
“We, however, want to advise pupils not to attempt crossing rivers and washed bridges to school. They must wait until normalcy returns,” he said.
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Dams overflowing
The Department of Water and Sanitation on Thursday warned that 14 of its 19 monitored dams in Limpopo have reached more than 100% of their holding capacity.
The Mopani District Municipality also issued a warning that some of its rivers and dams were overflowing, making it extremely dangerous for pupils to cross, swim, or fish.
During a brief respite, residents in most villages in Limpopo began assisting one another with cleanup operations.
From school pupils and job hunters to businesspeople, young and old, they gathered stones and other debris to redirect water from village roads to streams and rivers in order to improve access to main roads to towns, shopping complexes, clinics, home affairs, multi-purpose centres, and police stations.
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Daily life a struggle
Modiidi Marius Molewa of Relela Village, near Tzaneen, told The Citizen is unemployed, and the rain had made it harder for him to look for work.
“I usually make between R500 and R1500 a day doing odd jobs, but now it has been a week without a cent — all because of these torrential rains.
“That is why I joined my community to rebuild this road,” he said, eating a loaf of bread with sweetened water bought by Good Samaritans who donated money to the pale-looking workers.
17-year-old Grade 12 pupil, Charlotte Matlala, also of Relela Village, said she was worried because she had missed her first day at Boke High School in Bokhuta Village.
“I have been waiting for this day. I wanted to know how it feels to meet new friends, new classmates [who] you are going to the same school with, attend the same classroom with, and have the same environment with for the rest of the academic year. But these vicious torrential rains have ruined all that,” she said.
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Weather warning
The bad weather has led to widespread flooding of roads and settlements, the displacement of communities, damage to property, loss of livelihoods, and entire areas being cut off due to infrastructure damage.
At least nine people died, including a five-year-old boy.
Limpopo Premier, Dr Phophi Ramathuba, criss-crossed the province’s hard-hit district of Vhembe and Mopani with President Cyril Ramaphosa this week to assess the extent of the damage.
Ramathuba said the rains have been unprecedented in their intensity, reaching up to 400 millimetres in just a few days.
“This calamity began swirling above our heads weeks ago, tracing back to December 25, 2025, in the Waterberg and Capricorn Districts and escalated dramatically with the heavy rains last week, affecting Vhembe, Mopani and Sekhukhune districts.
“The repercussions of these floods are profound. Roads have been swept away, bridges are no longer standing, and communities are cut off from their economic lifelines and daily routines. Water and electricity infrastructure have been severely damaged, causing consternation amongst communities because this is the basic infrastructure that they rely on for survival,” she said.
“I stand before you today not just as your Premier, but as a fellow citizen of Limpopo, sharing in the grief and distress felt across our province. I extend my deepest condolences to all families grieving during this tragic period. We mourn together, and we will rise together,” she said with tears rolling down her cheeks.
The premier said the government has convened an emergency meeting with the extended Executive Council, local and district municipalities and various stakeholders to commence the daunting task of quantifying the extent of the damage.
“As it is about R1.7 billion on roads. We have asked for assistance from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for the temporary restoration of access roads. The Department of Public Works will, in areas where rain has stopped, start the process of reconnecting bridges, including the requested assistance from the SANDF.”
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The Premier said the impact on public facilities was equally alarming.
As of January 6, 2026, she said the province has documented damage to 31 schools, with this figure likely to rise.
“We have had to halt the reopening of about 1 400 schools in affected areas. And in health facilities, the province recorded a significant impact attributed to overflowing rivers, damaged bridges, and impassable roads that have restricted access to multiple healthcare facilities and affected both patient care and staff mobility.
“These were recorded in all our districts, with Vhembe having Tswinga Clinic, De Hoop Clinic, Duvhuledza Clinic and Tshipise Clinic inaccessible. The most significant single facility in Vhembe to sustain damage is the Elim hospital, where serious roof leaks have occurred, and significant damage to interior ceilings, fixtures and fittings has occurred.
In Mopani, she said seven hospitals and 19 Clinics have infrastructure challenges caused by the floods.
“The Waterberg region had storm damage reported at the Warmbaths, Ellisras, FH Odendaal and Mokopane Hospitals. So far, no report has been obtained from the Sekhukhune district. It is worth noting that the Mutlane Clinic guardroom was destroyed by flooding.
“So far, there is R7 million estimated damage to these health facilities that we shall have to work on to get fixed.”
The DA in the province, which has also been visiting flood-affected areas, has called on MEC for public works, Tonny Rachoene, to quantify the total damage caused and provide aid to communities.
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