VUYANI PAMBO | When the floods came to Giyani

What has befallen Giyani is inexpressible in words. There is no available language to comfort those who have been affected.

What do you say to those who have lost their loved ones, those who have lost their homes, their cars, and their businesses?

Words lose their meaning, and all we are left with is each other. In the face of tragedy such as this one, we have to come together and lend a hand. When an entire community is underwater, we all have to dive in and ensure that no one drowns.

It is in situations such as this that we must demonstrate resilience, hold on to each other with a tenacity that has never been seen. It is in situations such as this that we must show that the human spirit is irrepressible.

The floods that swept through Giyani and surrounding areas in Limpopo were sudden, violent, and devastating. Torrential rainfall caused rivers and dams to overflow, swallowing homes, cutting off roads, and leaving entire communities stranded.

Families were forced to flee in the dead of night, some climbing onto rooftops, others wading through fast-moving water with children in their arms. Vehicles were washed away, bridges collapsed, and access to clinics, schools, and food supplies was severed.

In the chaos, lives were lost, including that of a five-year-old child, an innocent soul claimed by waters that should never have reached people’s homes.

Although what is lost cannot be recovered, we must be an example of renewal and resilience. We must stand firm in the face of hardship and remember that no matter how dark and long the night might be, the morning will no doubt arrive.

Its arrival will be a reminder of what we are capable of when faced with difficulties. We mourn with all those who are still dealing with what has happened, those who are in a state of confusion because of the precarity of their condition. To the family that has lost a child, we say you are not alone. Your pain is also felt by us.

Yet Giyani’s pain is not unfamiliar as South Africa has been here before. We remember the floods of 2000 in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, when hundreds died and entire villages were erased from the map.

We remember the 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal, where over 400 people lost their lives, where bodies were pulled from mudslides, and where promises of rebuilding remain unfulfilled to this day.

We remember the catastrophic floods in the Eastern Cape last year submerging entire towns and destroying infrastructure and highlighting the deep inequalities that leave rural communities most vulnerable. Each time we mourn, each time we promise “never again,” and each time, the rains return to find the same vulnerabilities waiting.

What began as a natural disaster must not be allowed to become a man-made one.

Floods may be unavoidable, but mass death, displacement, and chaos are not.

South Africa has weather forecasting systems, early warning mechanisms, and disaster management frameworks.

Yet time and again, they fail to translate into timely evacuations, community alerts, and coordinated responses. The delay between warning and action is where lives are lost.

When reporting systems are ignored, when municipalities are under-resourced, and when disaster planning exists only on paper, water becomes a weapon against the poor.

These floods expose structural inequality in its rawest form. Rural towns and villages like Giyani are left with weak infrastructure, poor drainage, fragile housing, and limited emergency services.

The same rains that cause inconvenience in affluent suburbs become death sentences in neglected communities. This is the outcome of years of unequal development and political neglect.

The danger does not end when the water recedes. Displaced families face hunger, disease, trauma, and uncertainty. Disaster relief funds are often slow to arrive, and when they do, they are vulnerable to corruption.

We have seen before how tragedy becomes an opportunity for looting, how tenders multiply while people remain in tents. This must not be allowed to happen again and every cent meant for relief must reach the people it is intended to serve.

Giyani must be taken as a warning.

As climate change intensifies extreme weather, floods will become more frequent and more severe and without a radical rethinking of disaster preparedness, infrastructure investment, and community-based response systems, the poorest will continue to pay with their lives.

Still, amid the wreckage, there is something that refuses to drown. There is the neighbour who rescues another, the stranger who shares food, the community that organises before the state arrives. This is who we are as a country.

Finally, when the water returns, as it inevitably will, it should find a country that has learned, prepared, and acted.

Vuyani Pambo is an Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Member of Parliament.