BOPHELONG – Residents of Bophelong were left busy cleaning up and putting their lives back on track following a heartbreaking storm.
On Thursday evening, December 07, a storm wreaked havoc and destroyed several homes in Marikana and some parts of Bophelong.
Sedibeng Ster visited the area on the morning after the storm, Friday, December 08 and witnessed dozens of families left stranded and some rebuilding their homes.
While many are left with missing correlated steal flew by the strong winds before the heavy rain, many had to spend their Christmas savings to purchase building materials.
A series of interviews was conducted by the Ster Team, learning of heart-wrenching stories of what many families survived during the brutal storm.
Speaking to the paper, Morwesi Motsamai (25) one of the affected residents said she thought she was going to die when her shack flew before her eyes.
“I moved here in 2019 and we once experienced such heavy rains and it’s my first time being affected. I was sleeping when around to eight and I heard blowing winds. I covered myself with blankets trying to hide, but moments later saw correlated steels flying off,” he said.
The mother of two said she is happy that she was alone in the house.
“I took my children to visit their grandmother. When I saw sinks flying, I thought I was going to die. All my zinc flew and this morning I managed to find some. Some members of the community are helping me try to put together my shack,” she added.
A family of nine in extension 3 lost all their roofing during the heavy rain.
Family spokesman Thamsanqa Bless (31) said they moved their belongings to neighbours to try save them from the rain.
“Lights went off during the big wind and we decided to go sleep. Ten minutes after going to bed, we heard the roof cracking and flying with the wind. We then took our electrical appliances and stashed them at our neighbours,” he said.
“We are distraught because we are unemployed and don’t know how we are going to fix the roof. All the roof can’t be put back because of the severe damage. We would appreciate any assistance we can get,” he added.
Thokoana Mpholo, ward 6 Economic Freedom Fighters PR councilor visited his ward and said he will be taking further steps to try and assist the affected families.
“I am going to draft a letter to the municipality and see how we can assist the families who are faced with this disaster. We will continue with monitoring how many affected families are there and see how many we can try and assist,” he said.
