Reports by Jubie Matlou, Connie Selebogo, Evidence wa ka Ngobeni, Khadija Magardie and Sharon Hammond
When she woke at 5am on Thursday to see her husband off for work, Nozipho Mjoli saw no danger in the stream that usually flowed about 100m from her shack. But a few hours later, after having returned to bed, she was woken again by the desperate screams of her 11-year-old daughter.
Little Xoliswa was perched on top of the dinner table in the kitchen – a tiny island amid a sea of water from the Klipspruit. When Xoliswa had opened the front door to go to school, the river had gushed into the kitchen. By the time her mother reached the kitchen, the water was over her knees. “Suddenly it looked as if the whole stream was coming into the house. I put Xoliswa on my back, stumbled outside; that’s when I realised that the other shacks in the area were affected as well. It felt like a terrible dream, but it was real,” Mjoli said.
Her nightmare was shared across the north-east of South Africa as rivers burst their banks, communities were left stranded, cattle drowned and roads collapsed. In Johannesburg, the Westdene Dam overflowed, forcing authorities to close the nearby roads. Most arteries to the city centre were flooded, with dozens of cars stalled by the rising waters. And still the rain pelted down, prompting warnings of flash floods.
In northern Johannesburg trees blocked key roads, causing gridlock. In the plush suburb of Northcliff there were reports of houses and gardens sliding down the flooded hillside.
In Pretoria, the Apies River burst its banks, while the army was called in to mount a mass evacuation of residents around Hartebeespoort Dam. Four sluice gates had to be opened.
A 14-year-old boy drowned as the Moretele River burst its banks in Mamelodi. Two toddlers drowned in a rain-filled pit in Nooitgedacht on the West Rand. Radio 702 opened the lines as volunteers called in to offer their cars to help the homeless and stranded.
In Centurion, halfway between Pretoria and Johannesburg, rescue workers were sandbagging the main hotel and digging trenches.
But back in Soweto Nozipho Mjoli refused to move to the nearby community hall, fearing her possessions would be stolen. “I am going to wait here until my husband comes back from work. Only then can I move to the community hall with my daughter, while my husband keeps watch over our shack until the water subsides. If we all leave our shack unattended, we run the risk of losing our possessions,” she said.
Mjoli’s plight was shared by Daniel Hlungwani, who stood barefoot and trembling on the railway tracks. Hlungwani pointed out his shack, immersed 1,5m in the overflowing Klipspruit.
“I was alerted by screams of people that the river is about to wash away the shacks. When I ran to the door to check what was happening, the river just flowed inside the shack. I could find a pair of shoes, I grabbed a few clothes and fought my way up to the railway tracks,” Hlungwani said.
Across town in Alexandra, the Jukskei River created similar dilemmas. Emergency personnel from the army and police could not stop residents from jumping into their flooded shacks to rescue possessions such as blankets, mattresses, corrugated iron sheets and supporting poles.
Many residents at Stjwetla informal settlement were unable to enter their shacks through main doors. Some solved the problem by removing the roofs of their shacks and diving into their flooded houses. Others tried to stop their shacks from being swept away by feverishly working to weigh down their roofs with extra corrugated iron. They were derided by onlookers, despite the fact their efforts to save their mkhukhu (shacks) actually appeared to work.
Residents of Stjwetla were adamant they would not leave the area because they have nowhere else to go.
“It does not help to fix our shacks because the water comes from the other side and destroys everything,” said Peter Mtlanti, as he battled to remove a room- divider from his flooded shack.
Stjwetla’s residents claim the government is not prepared to improve their living conditions, and they have to endure living under unsafe conditions. “Come rain, come hell, we won’t move,” said Elsie Mchithakali, watching her shack balanced precariously on the edge of the river bank.
Another Alexandra resident, Frank Cebekhulu, said there is a need to build dikes as the Jukskei is increasingly moving towards the houses. “When I relocated to Alexandra 10 years ago, the Jukskei ran 60m to 70m away from my house, but that gap is narrowing with each flood,” said Cebekhulu.
Mpumalanga and the Northern Province were particularly badly hit as torrential rains wiped out much of the government’s hard- earned rural delivery. New roads, bridges, schools, water systems and clinics all dissolved in the downpour, which claimed at least 32 lives.
Mpumalanga’s roads department has already warned it doesn’t have the budget to repair the damage, and is in the meantime just erecting hazard signs warning motorists. At least 22 major bridges have collapsed while almost every road in the Lowveld has been left a patchwork of potholes – one so big it swallowed an entire car and drowned its occupants on Tuesday. Initial damage estimates from towns in both provinces indicate it will cost at least R580-million to replace just the most vital government infrastructure.
There are no figures yet for damages in more isolated villages or to private sector property. Water purification and reticulation systems were, ironically, some of the worst-hit infrastructure.
Latest reports indicate more than one million people are without safe drinking water, sparking fears of diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid, malaria and dysentery epidemics.
The region’s major economic resource, tourism, was hard hit as well. The Kruger National Park has been forced to close its entire southern region due to flood damage for the first time in its 101-year history. Skukuza lost 40 staff houses, its restaurant and three rows of rondavels to the Sabie River, and had to airlift 156 tourists to safety in a joint operation with neighbouring lodges at the Sabi Sabi, Sabi Sands and Mala Mala reserves. Mpumalanga’s already cash-strapped Parks Board was also forced to close all hiking trails and other facilities in its Blyde River Canyon and Swadini game reserves.
Economists say it is too early to calculate the damage the rains have caused the economy. But thousands of livestock have likely drowned in the heavy rains, while veterinarians are warning that the heavy rainfall conditions are ideal for the outbreak of insect-transmitted diseases such as Rift Valley Fever and bluetongue.
Mozambique, downriver from both Mpumalanga and the Northern Province and battered by its own heavy rains, is struggling to care for the estimated 100E000 homeless flood victims and its own devastated infrastructure. All flood aid has to be flown in after the borders were closed because of the floods.