The Bahati Centre and its neighbour, Ambassador Foods, suffered well over R200 000 in damages when a massive storm on Friday March 25 resulted in serious flooding of these businesses.
The storm hit Mbombela at around 16:00, bringing with it a massive downpour of rain, flooding Die Windpomp, Bloom Nursery and Ambassador Foods within minutes.
Die Windpomp’s owner, Lewies Dippenaar, said the downstairs section of his restaurant, which also has a stage and a dance floor, was ankle-deep in muddy water soon after the storm began.
“The whole section flooded so quickly, and the water kept washing through very quickly. The flooding caused so much damage. I think it is in the region of R200 000. The floor of the bottom part of the restaurant is lifting and will need to be replaced,” he said.
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Ambassador Foods, which is across from the Bahati Centre, was also severely affected by the flooding and is still in the process of calculating the damages.
Leviena Smit of Ambassador Foods said the water poured in through the store’s doors at a rapid pace and flooded the shop floor and its office.
“We actually had to drill holes in the walls of our office to let the water escape. We had buckets and were throwing all this muddy rainwater out the windows of our building. The water level was above our ankles,” she said.
Smit said the shop lost a day of work and had suffered quite a bit of damage.
Bloom Nursery, also situated at the Bahati Centre, was also flooded.
Danelle Pretorius of Bloom said the water came down like a river from the road, through the parking lot into the nursery.
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All three businesses have said the March 25 storm is not the first time their properties have flooded. They said they have asked the City of Mbombela multiple times about the road’s stormwater drains, and ways to resolve the issue.
There is also ground that is being developed above the centre, however, no work has been done at the area in two years, according to the business owners.
Dippenaar and Pretorius said the grounds have the potential to become a mudslide and due to the area not being fully developed, rainwater is channelled to the properties.
The City of Mbombela had not responded to a media query regarding the incident at the time of going to press.
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