Household items swept away: Jagersfontein survivors count their losses

Survivors of the Jagersfontein mine dam collapse have described their shock at watching all their possessions being swept away by sludge, leaving them with just the clothes on their back.

Norman Lekoala, 36, said he was asleep on Sunday morning when the dam wall burst. He awoke to banging.

“My friend knocked and knocked and eventually ran away.” He got up, intending to go to the outside toilet, and was confronted by a mudslide.

He couldn't go back inside the house and had to climb onto the roof of a shack inside his yard. The mud was already flooding into the house.

Trapped on top of the shack, Lekoala could only watch the destruction.

“The kettles, the iron, hotplates and everything was being washed away.

“It was just damage all over.”

The labourer said he knew the man who died in the disaster.

“We stayed in the same street. He was an elderly man. I don't think he would have been able to run away from the floods,” said Lekoala.

He was identified by the Free State premier's office as Mr Mosweu, who was 70. His first name is yet to be confirmed.

Initial reports said three people had died and two people were missing. The premier's spokesperson, Palesa Chubisi, said on Monday evening the EMS team had revised this to one dead and one missing. They are searching for a 50-year-old female.

Lefa Magau, 32, who also knew the elderly man, said they attended the same church.

“I was saddened when I heard that he passed away. He was a lovely old man,” he said.

Magau said when theywoke and realised their homes were being flooded, they had to run for their lives.

He said on Tuesday he was wearing the same clothes he had left his home in on Sunday morning.

“I lost everything. I was sleeping but I had a chance to run away. I couldn't think of anything, just to run for our lives.”

Accommodated at a shelter in Sandstone Sleeper Estate, Thato Moji, 24, said he wasn't at home when the disaster struck. But his elder brother and his mother, whom he shares a home with, had told him that nothing was saved at their property.

They are placing their faith in President Cyril Ramaphosa's promise, when he visited the area on Monday, that the government will help rebuild the homes and restore the livelihoods of residents in the mining town.

Minister of mineral resources and energy Gwede Mantashe and deputy minister Nobuhle Nkabane are expected to visit the area on Tuesday.

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