Bridge washed away – Limpopo villagers cut off

STRANDED: Home-based carers have suspend visits to remote Limpopo village after floods destroyed community-built crossing. Residents say the alternative routes too costly or too far for frail patients…

By  Keletso Mkhwanazi

Residents of Mafarafara village outside Burgersfort in Limpopo are once again struggling to reach healthcare after heavy rains washed away their makeshift bridge across the Steelpoort River, also known as the Tubatse River.

Built by residents from corrugated iron, wooden poles, wire and metal rods, the crossing lasted less than five months.

Mafarafara has no clinic. Residents rely on Taung Clinic in Ga-Taung, about six to seven kilometres away. Travelling there by an alternative route can cost up to R160 for a return trip on public transport. In July, Health-e News reported that residents had built the makeshift bridge after 27 years of asking their local municipality for a permanent crossing.

Before the bridge was built, elderly residents, heavily pregnant women and patients too frail to walk to Taung Clinic — or unable to afford transport — relied on a sewaiwai: a steel cart tied to ropes on both sides of the river and pulled across by villagers. It carried up to four adults and cost R5 for a single trip.

The cart was damaged and is no longer in use. Residents told Health-e News that its loss prompted them to build the bridge. Home-based carers also depended on the community crossing to reach patients.

Home-based care suspended

Since the bridge was washed away, home-based carers who deliver chronic medication, monitor pregnant women and support bedridden patients have temporarily suspended their visits to Mafarafara. They told Health-e News they cannot cross the flooded river. “This may result in patients not accessing healthcare at all,” says Kamogelo*, a home-based carer in Mafarafara.

“We cannot cross to do our work, and our patients on the Mafarafara side are currently not receiving their treatment.”

High-risk pregnant women are missing follow-up visits, placing both mothers and unborn babies at risk, she says. Family-planning and other follow-up visits have also declined over the past month.

After the sewaiwai became unusable, 65-year-old resident Otho Mnisi put money from his SASSA grant towards the makeshift bridge, which residents built in May. He told Health-e

News at the time that people contributed R5 per crossing, while local helpers carried belongings and helped them across.

Mnisi says residents plan to rebuild the bridge, but fear it could collapse again.

“Our biggest fear remains: if we fix the bridge, it collapses with patients,” he says. “Chances of survival are low. We need proper building materials for long-lasting structures.”

Residents told Health-e News in July that several people had drowned while crossing the river using the sewaiwai. They included a man returning from Taung Clinic after collecting high blood pressure medication eight years ago.

Representatives of the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality met residents after the latest collapse. Municipal spokesperson Freddy Mokoena says Mayor Eddie Maila has approached Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba and the provincial health department about possible interventions, including mobile health services. Mokoena says a permanent bridge at the crossing would require intervention beyond the municipality.

He says residents are not completely cut off: the municipality built another access bridge about a kilometre from the affected crossing in 2018, and the main road network remains available.

Residents say those alternatives are too far for sick and elderly people trying to reach healthcare.

“We’ve lost hope in the government,” says community member Melvin Serola. Residents want to rebuild the crossing themselves, he says, but need materials.

“We waited more than 27 years for a clinic. At this point, we doubt the bridge will be built any time soon. We want to build our own bridge; we just lack material.” – Health-eNews

*Not her real name