North West Provincial Legislature concludes visit to Taung flood
villages

9 April 2006

Taung - The North West Provincial Legislature’s delegation, visiting the
Taung area, concluded their oversight visit late Friday, 7 April 2006. Although
the delegation had intended to visit 12 villages ,which were identified as the
most stricken, the committees eventually visited 16 villages in total. The
eight villages visited on Thursday, 6 April, were Matlapaneng, Sedibeng,
Choseng, Loselong, Moretele, Khaukwe, Maganeng and Ntswanahatse. The eight
villages visited on Friday, 7 April, were Vaaltyn, Qho, Takaneng, Diretsaneng,
Mokgareng, Buxton, Thomeng and Lokgabeng.

The delegation travelled over 350 kilometres by gravel road over two days in
4x4 vehicles. The extent of the damage was especially visible by road as they
often met impassable bridges and stretches of gravel road.

“We are travelling by 4x4 over these roads. One can only imagine the people
isolated in these villages who are trying to get to and from Taung for the bare
necessities either by donkey cart or by foot,” said a visibly horrified
Mahlakeng Mahlakeng, leader of the delegation.

“Desperate. Dismal,” honourable Mahlakeng said when asked to briefly
describe the situations they encountered over the two days. “We are coming here
two weeks after the worst of the floods have passed and the extent of the
devastation is still mind boggling.”

In many places the vehicles still had to battle fiercely running water while
in others long detours had to be taken to avoid the hidden pools of standing
water.

“We picked up a few issues when we spoke to the people,” continued
Mahlakeng, “and our mentioning them is does not mean that the Greater Taung
Municipality did not do its part during this disaster. In fact they rose
admirable to challenge and for this we commend them. Water is finished in the
tanks provided by Sedibeng water and no one has come to refill them so the
people are still drinking the contaminated water. In Ntswanahatse we spoke to a
young woman surrounded by children who mentioned that children still have
diarrhoea while in Sedibeng, Khaukwe and Vaaltyn the people are living in tents
that are either too small or of shocking quality. Their isolation is so
complete that although the water level has gone down the state of the roads is
so bad even a donkey cart cannot move.”

“The extent of the destruction is enormous. Our report will go into further
detail about what we have seen but suffice it to say at this juncture, we are
in agreement with the figures mentioned by the MEC of Developmental Local
Government and Housing in the briefing we had with him on Thursday, 6 April, in
Taung. In actual fact we think that some of the figures mentioned may be
conservative. From what we have seen we believe that a figure of R500 million
for reconstruction is not too high,” held Mahlakeng.

“We intend to motivate for the entire Bophirima region to be declared a
national disaster zone as the funds required to rebuild this area will stretch
the provincial coffers in a manner we believe the province will not be able to
cope. Batho ba Taung we are with you. We have seen your suffering. We will
ensure along with our colleagues in government that your situation is remedied
as a matter of urgency,” concluded Mahlakeng.

Contact:
Roberta Makhambeni
Media Liaison Officer
Tel: (018) 392 7158
Cell: 082 779 4641
Email: roberta@nwpl.org.za

Issued by: North West Provincial Legislature
9 April 2006