After seven weeks of empty promises, Kariega flood victims still cry when they see clouds

The hole Muneeb Daya had to make in the roof of their house to help his dad. (Photo: Estelle Ellis)

By Estelle Ellis

24 Jul 2024

On Saturday night 1 June just before 11 pm, a cloudburst caused devastating flash floods in Kariega. Nine people drowned. Three remain missing. The flood caused damage of more than R1-billion to infrastructure. Shortly after the flood the small suburb of Westhill became a hive of black SUVs, cameras, waving politicians, bodyguards and support personnel as dignitaries, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, visited most-affected neighbourhoods. But for the people who live there very little has changed since that day.

When the clouds gather in the sky above Westhill in Kariega residents start crying.

“We look to the sky and we think, the rain is coming again,” one of the suburb’s oldest residents, Kaanil Daya (64), said. It is then, he says, that many people just start crying. “The flood has made us scared of the clouds.”

Daya rubs the white scars left on his arms where an electric cord had cut into him as he tied himself to his house while raging flood water swept through it.

It was a Saturday night when the floods hit after more than 200mm of rain fell in Kariega in an hour.

“I was already in my pyjamas when it happened,” Daya said. “I just wanted to get to the electric box because I knew electricity and water don’t mix. I saw the water take the television, the fridge was floating, the stove and the washing machine. I held onto the frame of this door. And I called for my son. We were lucky because my wife is not a healthy woman but she was with our daughter at her house. I also thought it was our saving grace that my son is so tall.

“I said to myself, let’s just remain calm and make a plan. I have very little breath in me because of my asthma. The water was already coming to my chin and I could feel it squeeze the last air out of my lungs. But I was in the army so I knew to remain calm and give instructions.”

He handed his son, Muneeb, a cooking pot and told him to climb onto the nearest cupboard and bash in the ceiling.

“I had a bicycle stored in the ceiling and I told him he must hand me the wheel because I want to tie myself to it. I took an electric cord and I wound it around my arms so the water couldn’t take me.”

Ten others were swept away that night in raging flood waters and the bodies of some of the deceased were only found more than a week later. Residents said on Tuesday that many of them had climbed into the ceilings of their homes to escape the floods.

“I hung there in the door for maybe an hour or so and then the water was gone,” Daya said. “Also my television, my stove, my washing machine and my fridge. My neighbours came to help me and I just collapsed.”

Kariega The DA claimed on Tuesday that a lack of maintenance to the Kat canal in Kariega contributed to flood damage when the area was hit by a cloudburst on 1 June 2024. (Photo: Supplied)

The next day he started putting up a fence with pallets he had found. “The flood took my garden and my fence, but I said to my wife, we can’t be without a fence because there are too many thieves around.” He, his wife and Muneeb have cleaned the couches and everything is sparkling clean in the bathroom and the kitchen – but they have nothing left.

“The mud that was in this house came to your knees,” Daya said. “It was a very big mess.

“We borrowed a two-plate stove to cook on. Someone brought a gas stove but we need to buy gas,” he said, embarrassed. “Here where the broom and the rake stand is where we had a fridge. I am wearing someone else’s clothes. Our papers are all gone. We have very little left.”

The only pot they have to cook in was dented by Muneeb when he bashed in the ceiling. “But we can still use it,” Daya said.

His story – one of many – repeats itself over and over as one walks through the damaged streets of the suburb comprising about 400 households. The elderly resident of the house closest to the canal left weeks ago, but with no permanent place to stay she is left to wander between friends and family, looking for a place to sleep. Broken sewage pipes are still discharging effluent into the canal. This flows straight into the Swartkops River.

Miriam Gamieldien, whose house is collapsing after the floods, said she was living with constant stress. “My nerves are finished. I have stomach problems. This was a terrible experience.”

Many residents have a story about President Cyril Ramaphosa visiting them, but despite his strict instructions very little has been done to help those badly affected by the floods.

Read more: Death toll 22 after Nelson Mandela Bay and KZN storm havoc, flood misery hits Western Cape

With their homes their only significant asset, the people from Westhill decided to stay put, fearing they would lose even more of their possessions to vandalism and theft. But the situation is being made worse by faulty street lights that were damaged by the flood.

Read more: Shelters swamped by displaced people after deadly downpours in Nelson Mandela Bay

According to a letter written by Tabiso Mfeya from the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements, temporary housing will be erected at Van Rooyen Avenue in Kariega for these residents.

“There are major complications with obtaining an exemption from the Department of Environmental Affairs on this site,” it read.

“We have had to appoint an Environmental Specialist to compile an application on behalf of the Municipality. A submission will be made to DEDEAT within the week ending on 12 July 2024.”

Seven weeks after the Nelson Mandela Bay metro evacuated residents from the Lapland Informal settlement the metro announced that it was getting ready to rehome them in these temporary housing structures. (Photo: Supplied)

The letter cautioned that the provision of services is critical (water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal) in Walmer and at Van Rooyen Avenue.

The DA’s spokesperson for cooperative governance and traditional affairs in the province, and former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, Retief Odendaal, said the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had been unable to start reinstatement work or help flood victims.

“Not only were electrical, sewerage, water and road infrastructure destroyed during the flash flood on 1 June, displaced families are also still awaiting the much-promised temporary shelters.

“Hundreds of families who have suffered damages to private property are also anxiously awaiting information as to whether they will receive a helping hand from the government.

“I do not believe that the municipality is doing everything that they can. It has pinned all its hopes on the national government.”

He said there was, however, significant uncertainty whether residents like those from Westhill would be able to claim for their flood damages from the municipality. “It doesn’t seem to me that the Treasury has done it in the past.”

Counsellor Franay van de Linde said she personally handed in more than 1,000 forms for people seeking assistance after the flood, and not one of them had heard back.

The empty space where the Daya family's refrigerator once stood. (Photo: Estelle Ellis)

“People are now struggling to even put food on the table because they have lost everything,” she said. “Here, if there is even a little thunder or the sky becomes cloudy, people start to cry. They think the rain must be coming back.”

Odendaal added: “Commitments to the disaster-stricken communities from various high-level delegations, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane, have also thus far yielded very little apart from promises. Apart from dismal disaster communications by an inept municipal administration, the main problem is seemingly the fact that the municipality does not know how to deal with the disaster.”

He said a capable municipality would have the know-how to move money around while waiting for disaster relief funds, and would not be waiting for approval first.

“Despite already forfeiting R430-million in grant funding this financial year due to the municipality’s inability to spend its budgets, the metro appears to have taken no decisive action to rectify the delays and spend the grant funding still available. To date, the metro has only managed to spend 69% of its capital budget and risk forfeiting even more funding,” Odendaal said.

That is why they were awaiting disaster relief funds before starting any reinstatement work in Kariega.

“This makes no sense since NMB has already submitted a proposal to the National Treasury for disaster relief – a process that can take many more months to finalise. In the meanwhile, NMB must follow the examples of other cities where natural disasters necessitated them to make budget amendments to fix their infrastructure.”

Odendaal said he had written to Mabuyane two weeks ago, asking for an intervention.

This letter stated: “More than 1,000 formal households have also suffered flood damages. By far, the majority of these residents did not have private insurance. Many of these homeowners have suffered such extended damage to their homes that they can now not reside there. Although most of these households have submitted claims for damages to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, the municipal officials have no idea how to facilitate these claims and have not started to process them at this stage.

“Significant uncertainty exists for these homeowners who have no idea whether some form of financial relief will be forthcoming from the government. Adding insult to injury is the slow progress made by the municipality in reinstatement works of municipal infrastructure in the area. There seems to be no urgency on the part of the municipality to attend to the repair work, and should you visit Kariega/Uitenhage today, you will find it virtually in the same state as when you visited the area just shortly after the floods. The government’s delay in reinstatement works is unacceptable and further exposes the municipality to adverse risks.”

Odendaal said on Tuesday that since he has not received a response from Mabuyane he will now turn to Ramaphosa and Dr Bongani Elias Sithole, the deputy director-general and head of the National Disaster Management Centre.

The hole Muneeb Daya had to make in the roof of their house to help his dad. (Photo: Estelle Ellis)

Van Niekerk said they have not forgotten about the people from Westhill and a budget has been allocated to fix the roads that were badly damaged by the floods.

He said there was a list of 422 houses that had been assessed by the National Home Builders Registration Council and the municipality was provided with an assessment of what must be done to make these houses safe again.

“It bothers me that the people who are complaining about their houses are not on this list,” Van Niekerk said, adding that he will investigate. He said he hoped that they could start work on this around 8 August.

“But a lot of people complaining are not on this list. Most of the people from Westhill are not on the list.”

He said it was true that there were extensive electricity problems in the area. “The water from the flood actually got into the sleeves from the wiring,” he said. “I understand that people are frustrated with the frequent outages. But we are trying our best.”

Read more: Seven confirmed dead after Nelson Mandela Bay downpours, with more rain expected

Van Niekerk said damage to the Kat canal remains a huge problem, but added that they will be starting work to fix it within two weeks. “I don’t know how long that will take.”

He said they have moved funds around to allow for a budget to fix the roads. DM

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