Heavy rain forces residents to flee flooded shacks in eMbalenhle
Green said the disaster management team is monitoring the situation.
The heavy rain forced some residents to leave their shacks at Ext 16, known as Mandela Section, in eMbalenhle on February 11.
Residents said this was not the first time they had to escape because water had flooded their shacks. They had to leave their shacks to ask for places to sleep in other extensions.
“Our area is a wetland. Did Govan Mbeki Municipality conduct a land survey before allocating stands to the community?” asked resident Martha Masango.
Her furniture sustained water damage which she believes could have been prevented.
“Some years ago, we asked the municipality to open a stormwater drain to minimise the chances of our shacks flooding. They opened it, but it is not maintained,” complained Masango.
Masango said she had to find a place to sleep elsewhere because her shack was full of rainwater.
Tony Mabizela, a community leader, accused the municipality of not adhering to the national call to alert the community of possible floods.
“We don’t hear anything from our municipality. We don’t even know their state of readiness should we have serious floods in our areas.
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“No awareness because our municipality is quiet, as usual. They even fail to maintain the stormwater drainage system,” complained Mabizela.
Donald Green, the acting communication manager at the municipality, said they had not received any reports of extensive rain damage.
Green said the disaster management team is monitoring the situation.
“Our road and stormwater team tries to attend to areas with excessive ponding and mud, but it takes some time to get to all the areas, especially when it rains constantly,” said Green.
