Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal government has failed to repair a footbridge near Ezulwini, which was damaged in the April floods, putting the communities’ lives at risk.
It is also a crossing point for members of the community and children attending Ezulwini Combined School, north of uMkhomazi.
Some of the pupils complained about the state of the bridge, saying they sometimes had to desist from going to school whenever there had been heavy rain.
There have been reports of members of the community who have drowned while trying to cross the flood-prone uMkhomazi River, using the bridge.
The matric pupils decried the fact that they sometimes had been forced to sleep at strangers’ homes if the bridge area was flooded after heavy rains.
Ezulwini Combined School matric pupil Sabelo Mfeka said: “All we are asking for is for them to save our lives by repairing this dangerous bridge because we want to finish our education.”
UMkhomazi community member Nkule Ndlovu of Esiqandulweni, ward 5 Buhlebezwe Municipality, said that a clinic was also situated across the river.
Ndlovu said that they reached out to several officials but none assisted.
At the end of last year during heavy rains some schoolchildren were forced to abandon lessons rushing back to cross the river before the bridge got flooded,” Ndlovu said.
She added that parents of smaller children had to accompany them every day to cross the bridge. They also had to go fetch them after school, for fear of them falling off the precarious structure into the river.
IFP KZN Legislature and member of the education portfolio committee Mntomuhle Khawula said the structure shook when people walked over it.
“Apparently when this bridge was built years ago it was intended to provide a temporary solution for the community, but the government has since turned its back on the Esiqandulweni community, and now it has come to this.
“Beside the scholars, people cross this bridge to connect for transport to the other side of the river”.
IFP leader Cabanga Mkhize said the community said they had done an in-loco inspection.
“We have heard of many stories of community members who have died when trying to cross this bridge. (This was when they were trying to access) the clinic across the river, as well as the scholars who have to risk their lives crossing to school daily.”
The KZN Transport Department couldn’t provide comment around the outcry at the time of going to print.
Daily News