Heavy storm leaves families homeless and others injured

GA-MATLALA’ RAMOSHEBO – Villagers in Ga-Matlala’ Ramoshebo outside Marble Hall within the Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality were left homeless when a heavy storm swept through the area last Thursday afternoon.

According to residents about eight families were adversely affected by the storm when their homes were blown away during the pandemonium leaving others injured.

Thabo Mogale, a resident, said they were lucky to be alive after the heavy storm hit the area and left some homeless and without belongings.

Mogale said the entire village was sent into total pandemonium as the heavy storm swept through, taking villagers’ home roofs away.

“About eight families that we know of were left with nothing after the storm destroyed their homes and belongings. There is one villager who was seriously injured during the storm. We tried getting help from emergency services to transport the injured person to hospital for medical treatment but were unsuccessful as we were later, after an hour of reporting, told that the ambulance had no lights and they could not help. We made efforts to transport the patient to hospital by ourselves. That saddened us,” said Mogale.

Jan Phasha, Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality Spokesperson, said the local municipality’s disaster management team assisted the affected families with blankets, clothes and food parcels through the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the social development.

Mogale said the affected individuals were currently accommodated at their families and relatives as they tried to fix their houses.