Johannesburg - The Protea Glen and Protea South communities are working around the clock to finish mopping up operations at their homes, which were damaged by the floods that devastated parts of the neighbourhood on Friday morning.
On Monday, Human Settlements Minister Mamoloko Kubayi, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile and Joburg Housing MMC Mlungisi Mabaso met the residents of the areas affected by the floods in parts of Kliptown, Protea South and Nancefield to assess the damage and the losses incurred by members of these communities before the festive season.
The minister said the department is on high alert following the floods that have ravaged Gauteng residents, resulting in the displacement of some of the affected families.
“It is never an easy day dealing with disasters of this kind because here we are dealing with people’s lives and people who have lost their valuables. It has been quite a difficult day. Previously, we have put people in halls and we received flack as this model did not give our people dignity, so we are working on a new model of partitioning that will give people dignity,” the minister said.
The minister said that the private developer who built a new suburb in Protea was to blame for having put the people of Protea South and Protea Glen next to the river banks, which has continued to cause devastation with each flooding season.
“The private developer literally put people on the floodline, which should not have happened. There has been no approval from the city, and there is no drainage system there. With the bridges, you can see that the development should not have happened in the manner that it did. We will be consulting legal teams to see how we can resolve this matter,” she said.
Last Friday’s heavy rains left a trail of destruction, damaging homes and cars and submerging electricity infrastructure. Many of the families suffered losses and damage to their household appliances, cars, and homes, which were submerged in the water for the better part of the weekend.
Speaking to The Star, Thandi Mabizela Molobela of Protea Glen Extension 4 said her home is now a disaster zone, and she does not know how she will manage to complete the cleaning up.
“I just don’t know how I will be able to sort all of this mess out. As you can see, I have lost everything, and my children have lost some of their belongings, including laptops, beds, furniture and clothes that are all wet. Some of these clothes are now impossible to salvage and must be thrown away, including the beds. How I am going to do that with a family of nine people remains a mystery. We are truly having a difficult time trying to clean up,” she said.
Mabizela-Molobela’s neighbour Nomzamo Sebone has estimated the damage to her belongings In the floods at over R300 000 following recent renovations to her kitchen and her Black Friday shopping.
“I had just renovated my kitchen recently. As you can see, the water marks from the floods were as high as my kitchen unit’s table tops. My new stove has been damaged, my fridge all damaged and luckily my car was not damaged as I was at work on Friday morning. I received a call from my children telling me that the house was flooded. I thought it was just minimal flooding, only to find that the water was too much. The children managed to rescue only the sofas, some chairs and one television set, but for the most part I have lost more than R300 000 worth of household items in the floods,” Sebone said.
Luckily, Sebone is one of the few affected flood victims who has insurance on her household items. She said she is waiting for her insurer to come assess the damage.
A resident of Protea South’s informal settlement, Dimakatso Mofokeng, said the floods damaged her shack she lived in with three of her children.
“We had no choice but to demolish the shack because it was badly damaged by the floods and was becoming a danger to my children. Right now I am homeless,” she said.
The Star