Relentless rains spilling over from Mozambique have submerged villages across Limpopo and Mpumalanga, sweeping away homes, cutting off roads and leaving communities isolated and desperate. Over the past five days, areas in Limpopo and Mpumalanga have been battered by incessant rain as a storm that first started over Mozambique quickly travelled into the border provinces, causing flooding that has submerged entire villages in murky brown water and damaged roads, bridges and critical infrastructure. The floods have had devastating consequences for communities that live in areas close to the Mozambican border.
At least two children have died, and homes have been swept away as communities contend with the unrelenting rains, which are projected to continue well into the weekend. The Greater Giyani Municipality is one of these regions where the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force have had to rescue community members who were trapped or swept away by the rising waters. A desperate search is currently under way for a five-year-old boy, Siyanda Boloyi, who was reported missing early on Thursday, 15 January, in Mbaula Village outside Giyani.
Authorities are racing against time, braving perilous conditions, to locate the boy, who was swept away when he and his mother attempted to flee their home as it was engulfed in water. According to SAPS Limpopo spokesperson Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba, the mother was rescued by the SANDF after being trapped against a tree, but the child could not be located. While it has been reported that the child has died, Mashaba told Daily Maverick that the reports were false and the search was ongoing.
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Detailing the impact of the flood to Daily Maverick, Eron Mabunda, from Munghonghoma Village in Mopani District Municipality in Giyani, spoke of villages isolated because the floods had turned “the roads into rivers” and cut off electricity supply. “We are seriously under siege, we are trapped. From the day the floods started, we can’t leave the village.
Even just to access necessities, like going to the shop to buy food. Something as small as buying bread, we can’t even do that. Even if you want to use a generator to operate lights, your refrigerator and all these things, we can’t even get petrol to do that because the roads to the filling station are closed,” Mabunda said.
He added that while the village had two clinics that were tending to the sick and injured, emergency services could not access his village. “Ambulances cannot get to the village or outside the village. Even if someone is about to die, that person cannot be taken hospital because there is no way out.”
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