WATCH | Dozens reeling, including matric pupil who lost books as homes are damaged by Maritzburg flood

Matric pupil Xoliswa Ximba, 18, watched helplessly as gushing water carried away her school books and notes when her home in Peace Valley, Pietermaritzburg was flooded on Wednesday.

The community, which is home to 15 families, scrambled when heavy rains caused the nearby Msunduzi River to burst its banks and overflow into their homes.

“I didn’t get to collect my books. When the floods came I was with my younger siblings so I took them, locked the house and we ran,” Ximba said.

She said getting the children to safety was more important even though she was in the middle of writing her final examinations.

“ I will ask my friends to lend me their notes so I can study. I can’t afford to slack now because I have to work hard and get my family out of this place.”

Ximba said she will have to summarise notes for the four subjects she is due to write, namely isiZulu home language, English first additional language, drama and geography.

When a TimesLIVE team visited the area on Thursday, mop-up operations were underway.

KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Sihle Zikalala said the floods did not claim any lives. He said 15 families have been moved to a local mosque while provincial government tries to find a way to accommodate them.

“There are other areas affected to a lesser extent. The main one is Peace Valley. We will work with the mosque to make sure [the families] are supported in terms of food and clothing,” he said.

Zikalala urged residents to play their part by agreeing when they are relocated to areas that are not as vulnerable to floods.

“This area is exposed to flooding. It is on the bottom of a hill and there is a river next to it which exposes residents to danger when it rains. We will hurry the process of building RDP houses but it will be difficult to do here. We will look for a safer place that is not far from here,” he said.

“When we do, we would like you to relocate. We all love to live in familiar surroundings but that should not mean being exposed to danger.”

Residents believe the problem is the river, not their area.

Olwethu Mabhayi, 24, said they are not against moving to RDP houses but it wouldn’t be practical for big families who have built bigger houses to go back to sharing a four-room house.

She said it would be in everyone’s best interests to build a retaining wall instead to protect the community from the overflowing river.

“Instead of moving us government should help us redirect the river by digging it and building a retaining wall. It would be cheaper and in everyone’s best interests. Even if they help us with the excavator and material to build the retaining wall, we will do the rest ourselves.”

She said this was the fifth time the river had overflowed and damaged property, but it hadn’t happened since they dug the river to redirect water flow.

“It also happened in April this year but it hadn’t happened for more than two years prior to then. The community, mainly the men, dug the river and it stopped overflowing after heavy rains. It seems they will need to do it again,” she said.

Sakhiseni Mabhayi, Olwethu’s brother, said they had asked for assistance to dig the river from the local councillor, and made plans of how it would flow, but they were told it would tamper with wildlife.

“When we raised the issue with the councillor he told us we would be moved out of this area, but we asked for help in the meantime. He said the departments of agriculture and wildlife would be against that, but aren’t people’s lives more important?

“The last time this happened, during the April floods, a child was washed away, so we are living in fear,” he said.

Zikalala said they would assist the affected pupil.

Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube called for disaster management to prioritise the elderly and children who are writing exams.

She urged citizens to be alert as this is the season of “unpredictable weather conditions induced by climate change which are threatening human lives”.

Zikalala said the Msunduzi municipality and the provincial government will fund relief efforts after the disaster.

Local humanitarian organisations including the Red Cross and Al-Imdaad will feed the community for the next five days and help provide sponges and blankets. The provincial government will take over after five days.

The Clanfin Umpetha Challenge canoeing event, which was scheduled for Sunday in the city, has been postponed to December 3 after equipment was damaged.

TimesLIVE

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