Generations of Limpopo residents battle makeshift bridge, but municipality does nothing

Tags

---

03-02-2025
Read : 36 times
News 24
Source

• Limpopo residents in Elias Motsoaledi Municipality fear for their children's safety crossing a makeshift bridge to school.
• The bridge, made of mealie meal sacks and concrete pipes, gets washed away by heavy rain.
• The municipality said the temporary bridge has been restored several times, but budget issues and closed borrow pits have delayed a permanent solution.

Residents of Elias Motsoaledi Municipality in Sekhukhune, Limpopo, fear for their children's lives and education as they struggle to cross a makeshift bridge to get to school.

Photos supplied to News24 show a fragile bridge made of mealie meal sacks filled with sand, old concrete, reinforced concrete pipes, and stones.

Mpho Malahlela, 38, said her two young children have already missed five school days since the term began.

"The bridge is passable when the water is low, but heavy rain makes it impossible for even adults to cross," she said.

She stressed that her children, both in the foundation phase, cannot afford to miss school at such a crucial stage of their education.

"They're losing out on important lessons they'll need for exams. This isn't right," she said.

Malahlela said the community has battled the bridge issue for decades, and the municipality is aware of the problem.

"I used to cross this bridge on my way to school. Every time there was heavy rain, it got washed away," she said.

She recalled that the concrete pipes near the bridge appeared more than five years ago, suggesting the start of construction, but no progress followed.

"We had hoped our children would finally get to school safely, but more than five years later, we're still waiting," she said.

"We need school buses, especially during rainy days, so children can travel safely," she added.

Another resident described how she nearly drowned when the bridge collapsed while she was crossing.

Solomon Madiga, 32, said he almost lost his life on the same makeshift bridge when he was in high school.

"I was crossing one morning on my way to school when the bridge started falling beneath me," he said.

He grabbed onto a sand-filled sack that, by luck, remained in place.

He said:

I only survived by chance because the water was so strong.

Madiga said various councillors have come and gone, all aware of the problem, yet nothing has changed.

"It's disturbing that generations of people have suffered because of something the government could easily fix," he said angrily.

Community activist Mathunyane Moela said they have repeatedly visited the municipal offices to warn officials about the bridge's danger, especially to children, yet nothing has been done.

"We can't keep complaining about the same issue for years with no action. We vote for change, but the change never comes," he said.

Moela told News24 that service delivery in the area remains inadequate.

"We have to beg officials to do their jobs just to get basic services. It's exhausting," he said.

He warned that if a child gets swept away by the bridge, the same officials will pretend to care, offering condolences instead of taking action now to prevent a tragedy.

Elias Motsoaledi Municipality spokesperson Simon Makua said school children primarily used a temporary bridge connecting Luckau and Ga-Phosa Village.

Makua said the temporary culvert bridge was in the middle of a river stream flowing westward towards Ga-Phosa and Luckau.

Makua said:

Whenever heavy rainfall occurs in the region, the backfill material gets washed away, forcing the municipality to restore it after every downpour.

He noted that the municipality had done this restoration more than seven times.

"Consistent rainfall in December 2024 and January 2025 caused the stream to overflow, ultimately washing away the temporary bridge," he said.

Makua added that the closure of borrow pits within their jurisdiction prevented the municipality's roads unit from restoring the bridge.

"However, the municipality has included the pedestrian bridge in its application for disaster management relief funding," he said.

Makua acknowledged that although the municipality had recorded the need for the bridge in its Integrated Development Plan, budget constraints had prevented its construction.

News24 contacted the Limpopo Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure several times for comment, but no response was available at the time of publication.