Food aid for flood victims
2008-01-30 14:16
Johannesburg - A defence force helicopter from Pretoria was expected to deliver food parcels to flood victims in Limpopo on Wednesday, the province's Housing and Local Government Department said.
"Those residents are cut off from the outside world. We can only access them by air, "said department spokesperson Clayson Monyela.
Monyela said the food parcels would be airlifted to about three villages near Mafefe and villages near Penge.
Over 1 000 villagers were stranded in the Mafefe area and about 178 families in Penge.
Roads into the villages were made inaccessible after dams and rivers burst, due to flooding of the Olifants river last Friday.
Monyela said the parcels consisted of mielie meal, cooking oil, milk and non-perishable items such as canned meat and fish.
Disaster fund to pay
He said the cost of parcels as well as the plans to rebuild the flood-destroyed houses and roads had been allocated from the province's disaster fund.
The cost of the flooding to the province would only be finalised by the end of the week.
Monyela said reports that government officials had not reacted quickly enough to calls for supplies were incorrect.
"The weather was not playing along. It was raining heavily and the roads were impassable.
"I can understand their situation but I can assure you that government has been doing everything possible to respond to their conditions," he said.
Monyela said one person - Sonnyboy Mokgotho - had died after he was swept away by the overflowing Olifants river on Saturday.
He said a post-mortem indicated that Mokgotho had not died of drowning but from extreme cold.
No other casualties had been reported and Monyela said infrastructure repairs had begun.
"It has stopped raining, the sun is shining and some of the waters have started to subside, so we are able to do repair work," said Monyela.
- SAPA