Polokwane - Disaster Management in Limpopo wants the government to build new houses for families left destitute after a huge storm caused widespread damage over the weekend.
Officials dispatched to investigate the damage caused by storm that tore through villages in Mopani, Capricorn and Sekhukhune found that hundreds of houses had been badly damaged – some even beyond repair.
Many victims were still trying to rebuild their homes days after the devastating storm, but inspectors said some of the damaged buildings posed a serious risk.
Many of those trying to rebuild their homes spent hours tracing down the corrugated iron sheets which the storm had ripped off their roofs, while others, whose houses had been too extensively damaged sought refuge at their neighbours and community centres.
The investigating team surveying the aftermath of the disaster recommended that low-cost houses be built for some of the victims.
Provincial Disaster Management’s Motupa Selomo said: “The preliminary assessment reveals that more than seventy families and Farming Projects have been badly affected in Maruleng Municipality.”
Forty families in Fetakgomo municipality were also displaced and in need of accommodation.
Six of these families were found to be in need of relief materials in the form of blankets and sponge mattresses.
“From the six households, two families were identified to be in need of emergency shelter in the form of low-cost houses.”
Among the affected was a child-headed family whose house was completely destroyed in the storm.
“The house structure, accommodating children without parents, was completely flattened and the other one, which was occupied by an aged man with sight difficulty, was a mud house which is no longer safe to live in,” Selomo said.
He added that electric pylons were also destroyed around the Ga-Nchabeleng area and that workers from Eskom had arrived and had started repair work.
The Limpopo Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) warned residents to prepare for the possibility of more severe thunderstorms in the province.
According to the South African Weather Services, these storms would possibly occur again over the southern parts of the Waterberg and Sekhukhune Districts.
ANA