GOOD Statement by Marius van Stade, GOOD Stellenbosch Municipality Councillor:
The GOOD Party Stellenbosch is deeply concerned about the devastating impact of the severe flooding experienced this past weekend, following the first pre-seasonal rains in Idas Valley, Cloetesville and surrounding areas in Stellenbosch.
While the physical damage to homes, furniture, personal belongings, and infrastructure is significant, the emotional and psychological impact on affected residents, especially children, cannot be ignored. Families have been left traumatised after witnessing floodwaters enter their homes, destroy personal possessions, and create uncertainty about their safety and well-being.
For many children, these incidents are frightening and emotionally distressing, particularly when they experience displacement, disruption to their daily lives, and the fear that heavy rains may once again place their families at risk.
GOOD Councillor Marius van Stade underlines that residents should not have to live with the constant anxiety that every rainfall could end with their homes being flooded. It has become evident that, in several affected areas, municipal stormwater infrastructure failed to adequately direct water away from residential properties.
Blocked stormwater pipelines, clogged waterways, and insufficient drainage capacity in high-risk flood zones have contributed significantly to the devastation experienced by residents.
The GOOD Party is therefore calling on Stellenbosch Municipality to urgently implement the following measures:
- Conduct the immediate cleaning and clearing of all blocked stormwater pipelines, drains, and waterways across affected communities.
- Identify and prioritise upgrades to inadequate stormwater infrastructure in known high-risk flooding areas.
- Implement preventative maintenance measures to ensure that all stormwater systems are fully operational and prepared for the upcoming winter rainfall season.
- Provide urgent relief and humanitarian assistance to affected residents whose homes and properties sustained severe damage.
- Assist residents with guidance and support regarding municipal claims processes where infrastructure failures may have contributed to property damage.
- Through the Municipality’s Disaster Management Division, implement proactive disaster mitigation measures when severe weather warnings are issued by the South African Weather Service, including the distribution of sandbags to high-risk flooding areas to help protect homes and properties.
The GOOD Party believes that preventative maintenance, effective disaster preparedness, and quick response interventions are critical to protecting vulnerable communities from avoidable flooding disasters. Municipal infrastructure must be capable of effectively directing stormwater away from residential areas, particularly as we approach the peak winter rainfall season.
The safety, dignity, mental well-being, and livelihoods of residents must be prioritised. We urge Stellenbosch Municipality to treat this matter with the urgency it deserves and to ensure that affected residents receive both immediate relief and long-term infrastructure solutions.
GOOD Community Engagement: The party encourages active community participation in governance.
eight patrol
Gatvol – fed up / had enough [ghut-foll] Meaning ‘filled to the brim’ and is used to describe someone who is very angry or tired of the same thing happening over and over again.Example: “I’m gatvol with that nonsense.” / “I’m gatvol that they keep losing all the time.”
Winter Bite
Van is getting married, but he and his fiancee have never done the deed – in fact he\’s never been with any woman before. He\’s getting more and more nervous as the big day approaches, so he confides in his friend. His friend says \’No worries man. I\’ll come by the honeymoon suite before you guys get there, and I\’ll hide behind the curtain, and I\’ll whisper instructions to you.\’
\’You\’d do that for me?\’
\’Sure thing man!\’
So the wedding day arrives, it was a lovely service (so I was told, I wasn\’t there myself) and Van\’s friend sneaks into the honeymoon suite as promised and hides behind the curtain.
Van and his new wife arrive in the room, get settled on the bed, and things are getting steamy.
But Van is still super nervous and his tummy is bubbling, so he murmers to his wife, \’Listen babe, I\’m just gonna go to the bathroom quick. I think it\’s that wors roll from earlier.\’
\’Sure thing babe.\’
So Van goes into the bathroom, and he\’s taking quite a long time. And his wife is starting to feel the nerves herself. And it\’s getting worse. She can\’t hold it in. But she doesn\’t want to go after he\’s gone and totally ruin the mood. So she looks around and finally finds a shoebox. Quickly, she does her business in the shoebox, and she shoves it under the bed just as Van comes back from the loo.
Van gets back on the bed and they go at it again. But after a minute or so Van smells something not so lekker.
\’What\’s that smell?\’
\’Nothing babe,\’ he wife tries to assure him.
\’No man there\’s definitely something not so lekker in this room!\’VSo Van starts looking around the room, in the corners, in the cupboard, and finally he looks under the bed, and sees the shoebox.
He pull it out, and opens it up, and in horror he shouts \’Sies! Daar\’s kak in hierdie doos!\’
And from behind the curtain his friend yells, \’NEE MAN, DRAAI HAAR OM!\”