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I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of The Presidency, GCIS, StatsSA and SSA for opening their hearts and donating clothes and non-perishables for me to share with the victims of floods in Mopani District
We started at Bode village of Greater Giyani municipality, where we donated clothes to families from Hlaneki, Bode, Dzingidzingi and Maswanganye villages. Their houses collapsed and some were flooded. We were accompanied by the Mayor, Her Worship Cllr Thandi Zitha, MPL Hon Khathu Netshifhefhe (who has Giyani as his Constituency Office), and councillors of the municipality and ward. I call the Mayor Mama because dueing the SAYCO days, she was one of the few women in the Northern Transvaal structures and so she played mother to the baby me. I have also worked with some of the structures of the ANC.
Driving to Tzaneen was a different experience, at Dzumeri through the bypass, it was heart wrenching to see water level marks on houses and realising all those houses were flooded. Will follow up with Minister of Transport about work on the Dzumeri bridge. Crossing over the Letaba river that in some parts is still fierce in its flow and realising that during the floods the Letaba had quadrupled in size was scary if one imagines its impact along the floodline and downstream when in flood.
At Petanenge in Greater Tzaneen Municipality, I was accompanied by the Mayor Cllr Gerson Molapisane, the Chief and Mayor . Also present were the headmen (boNdabezitha) from the Nkuna Royal Family. I was impressed to see two of boNdabezitha were female. I glad to know that even us royals are progressing with more women ascending to thrones without court battles.
My heart broke when a community member narrated the story of how she lost everything in the floods. The Mayor explained that flooding in Greater Tzaneen actually started on the 26th of December 2025. He updated me about municipal efforts to fix the local roads and the need for extra support.
Of course Ba-Phalaborwa is my other home which I could not recognise because of the devastation. The damaged the floods visited to the people of Ba-Phalaborwa will be difficult to completely quantify. When I saw the aftermath of the Selati and Mulati rivers, I understood when we were informed houses are still collapsing even today. I can only imagine the damaged that has been caused by the Lower Olifants river. The damaged caused to the R71 and R40 is on a different level. We are aware the STOP/GO can cause delays of more than an hour but we all need to exercise patience in tthe traffic congestion whilst they fix the road.
More than 300 houses have collapsed in Ba-Phalaborwa to date and many more are still expected to collapse. So the largest number of our beneficiaries were in Phalaborwa.
Some of the houses across municipalities in Mopani District had flood water running over window levels. The Minister of Human Settlements Thembi Simelane and her team visited last week for their inspection-in-loco.
Government has already acknowledged in the classification of the state of National Disaster that the rebuilding programme must be a coordinated effort of national, provincial and local governments. I have committed to request our Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba to also tighten the coordination of the temporary relief program, in particular in roads/ internal streets rebuilding so we can compliment community and municipal efforts more effectively.
In all these, I want to appreciate the communities who faced danger but refused to lose their humanity. In the face of danger, when it was not possible to call for government help, they did not flee to safe but chose to rescue each other. This was Ubuntu/ Botho in action. Even today, these communities chose to work together to rebuild
We continue to mourn the lives lost in the floods but rebuild with resilience
Tshivenda tshiri: Adzimana ula malombe, fhedzi mukosi aya phalalana.
School shoes donated by: Macrocomm
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