The secretary of the ANC, Muzi Chirwa, went to see three families who had lost their loved ones to the Mlumati and Nkomazi rivers during the floods. He was joined by Nkomazi Local Municipality’s (NLM) executive mayor, Phindile Magagula, and the ANC’s Ehlanzeni regional chairperson, Jackie Macie.
Their visit started off at the Mhlongo family in Mdladla. The head of the house, who was in his mid-sixties, reportedly went fishing on February 4 and never came back. Jim Mhlongo sold fish for a living. It was during the first week of the floods when the rivers started filling up that he went to do his routine fishing; little did the family know that it would be the last time they saw him.
According to his family, he went to the Mlumati with a friend who later came back to alert them of a drowning incident. His body is still missing.
The second family they paid a call on was the the Bandas. The family had lost their 18-year-old son, Andile Mkhatshwa, who attempted crossing the Mlumati River on February 5, after bunking classes at Shongwe Boarding School. In almost similar circumstances, his classmate with whom he had bunked classes was the one to report the unfortunate ordeal to the school on the same day. The body has still not been found.
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According to Magagula, these two families have since been receiving counselling, arranged by NLM. “We have been working closely with the families and we are supporting them in their times of distress. We have sent a team of social workers that will ensure that they receive the help they need. Divers have also been coming in to assist with the search for their missing people, it is not as intense as it was, but it will still continue and we are hopeful that sooner or later they will find something.”
The visit was rounded off with the Montshela family in KaMandulo. A nine-year-old boy had gone fishing at a local bridge on February 5. According to the family, Nkosinathi Mathebula felt like missing church, so he could go fishing. On her way home from church, his mother was met by his friend and informed that Nkosinathi had drowned.
“We were so shocked to learn that he had gone fishing in the first place, something he had never done before. We rushed to the bridge and all the friends he had gone with were there, but he was nowhere to be seen. We continued to search, but could not find him. Our 16-year-old neighbour dived in and, fortunately for us, his body was found. It’s the most painful thing any family will go through, but we are grateful that we were able to bury him,” said Nkosinathi’s grandmother.
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The ANC said the reason for its visit was to acknowledge and pay homage to these families. “A terrible disaster hit Nkomazi not long ago, I immediately came down to assess the damage with the chairperson of the Ehlanzeni region. We saw for ourselves how severe the situation was. We have also seen on the news that there were a number of cases on people who had drowned and, unfortunately, some have not been found to this date. We came to the families so we could let them know that we are with them, we share their grief and feel their pain. The ANC is a caring organisation, we don’t only care for the people when it’s time to ask for votes, we treasure the relationship we have with the people and this is one way to show them that we care,” said Chirwa.
Food parcels and blankets were donated to the families during the visit.
