The new year started off on a bad note when residents were left stranded and homeless after their houses were heavily damaged by a devastating storm that hit the Makhado Municipal area a week ago. In total, 107 houses were severely damaged by the storm.

The areas which were affected by the storm are Bokisi with 59 households, Chavani with 32, Tshakhuma with four, Vhutuwangadzebu with 17 and Sundani with one. The mayor of Makhado Municipality, Cllr Mavhungu Luruli, accompanied by exco-members, councillors, the Speaker and the chief whip of the municipality, visited the affected areas last Friday to inspect the damage.

Asked about her strategies to deal with this kind of disaster within the Municipality, the newly appointed mayor, Cllr Mavhungu Luruli, said that her team was busy seeking funds from the local business sector to support the vic-tims. “We also identified a need for houses to assist the affected families. In this regard, we are planning to approach the Department of Housing to intervene,” she said.

According to Mavhungu, the municipality is busy conducting research in the affected areas, so that they can assist with planting trees in strategic positions so that they might not encounter such a challenge of damaged houses in future. “One other thing that we have identified is that there was no research that was conducted before the people were allocated the stands,” Mavhungu acknowledged.

The disaster management team from the Makhado Municipality assisted the affected families with food parcels and tents.

Other areas which had been recently hit by storms in the Makhado Municipality were the Hlanganani and Dzanani areas.

Meanwhile, there are about 105 schools that were severely damaged in the province. The spokesperson for the Limpopo Department of Education, Mr Ndo Mangala, confirmed that the schools were extensively damaged by storms. “We are busy delivering mobile classes to the affected schools to address this challenge,” he said.

A pensioner whose house was also blown away by the devastating storm, Mrs Emily Ram-bau of Bokisi village in the Hlanganani area, said that her five-room house used to be an investment for her family. “I used all my pension money building a decent house for my family; now my house is damaged. I don’t know what to do now as all the money I worked for, for the past 20 years, has been wasted,” she said. “This house had just been completed and we were about to move inside, but now it is de-stroyed,” Rambau sadly highlighted.