Extent of the damage caused by hail storm is vast
A local farmer is distraught after he suffered a loss of more than R1 million in damages, following one of the most severe hail storms in the area.
NKOMAZI –Â Mr Gilmore Mobi, a director of Siyavuya farming cooperative, told Mpumalanga News that the hail storm over the weekend has been one of the worst to hit the town in years.
His wife is one of the founders of the farming project, which includes livestock and crop farming. It has 37 employees, including eight former matriculants. The hail storm has killed about 14 000 chickens and four sheep, destroyed seven chicken runs with its equipment and wrecked their kraal. Mobi says with the extent of damage, if government does not provide any form of intervention, they might be forced to retrench some of the workers.
“Some of our employees are sole breadwinners and they might be jobless soon. This is a huge loss, not just on revenue but on employment as well. We do not want to let them go but we cannot keep them if we can’t pay their salaries,” said Mobi.
On Tuesday afternoon the Nkomazi Local Municipality reported that 446 houses had been damaged and most had no roofs.
Public infrastructure was ruined; 25 schools, five clinics including Naas CHC, Dludluma Clinic and Mangweni Clinic as well as two major hospitals – Shongwe and Tonga – were also hit by the storm. The labour ward, paediatric ward, kitchen, theater, linen storage room, palisade fencing and pharmacy at Shongwe Hospital were reported to have been damaged. The Department of Health estimated that the cost of the damage would be about R40 million.
Two people were injured and hospitalised, a 15-year-old boy from KaMhlushwa died after being electrocuted by an illegally connected electricity cable and an eight- year-old boy drowned onMonday at a nearby dam while playing with his friends.
“As a municipality, we are working together with the provincial government to provide temporary shelter and food parcels for those who were affected.
We continue to warn and urge residents to take necessary precautions as weather services predict more possible storms,”
said spokesperson for the local municipality, Mr Cyril Ripinga.
