/ 5 March 2007

Father runs through storm with injured child

A father told on Monday how he ran eight kilometres to hospital with his two-year-old child in his arms, after his shack fell down during a freak storm near Klerksdorp. Daniel Maputle said his shack in Jouberton township collapsed during the storm on Sunday, and his son, Bithatelo Maputle, was struck on the head.

A father told on Monday how he ran eight kilometres to hospital with his two-year-old child in his arms, after his shack fell down during a freak storm near Klerksdorp.

Daniel Maputle said his shack in Jouberton township collapsed during the storm on Sunday, and his son, Bithatelo Maputle, was struck on the head with a piece of corrugated iron.

”He is now in hospital and I fear he might have brain damage.”

Maputle said he was attended to after waiting for three hours at the local Tshetho hospital.

Meanwhile, residents of Jouberton spent Monday morning drying out their household possessions and repairing their roofs.

Sheets of mangled corrugated iron lay strewn all over the township.

Steve Senyane, principal of Akofang Primary School, said much of the iron littered about the grounds, among uprooted trees, had blown in from outside the school property.

The school itself suffered damaged classrooms, with one block having lost its roof.

”A few kids arrived for school this morning but I sent them home,” said Senyane.

At least three churches also suffered damage.

Over 1 000 families are said to have been left homeless following the storm.

Three people died and three hundred were being treated at local hospitals. The situation was compounded by a power failure, making it difficult for emergency services to carry out rescue missions in other affected areas. – Sapa