These Villagers Have to Fix Their Own Roads and Drains

• Villagers in northern KwaZulu-Natal are preparing for the rainy season by repairing damaged roads, digging trenches, and installing storm drains themselves.
• They say government help is slow or absent.
• In Abaqulusi and Msinga, infrastructure has not been fixed since the last floods.
• In Nquthu, communities are paying for their own repairs to roads.

Most weekends, Sbhamu Ngobese leads local youth in clearing rocks from the D2251 road in Mbewunye, east of Nquthu in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The road has become impassable since heavy rains and flooding eroded the surface, leaving large stones exposed.

Ngobese says they are trying to prepare for the upcoming rainy season, when more of the road will most likely be eroded.

Over the last several years, heavy rain and floods have damaged homes, roads and infrastructure. But residents say the damage is rarely fixed by the authorities and no preventative measures are taken. As a result, they have resorted to using their own money and time to fix and prevent further damage.

Villagers are digging trenches, putting in storm drains and clearing damaged roads in an effort to prepare for the upcoming rainy season.

Abaqulusi

In Mondlo, a township in Abaqulusi local municipality, residents have tried to redirect rainwater away from roads, housing and bridges.

A vehicle bridge, known as C Bridge, connecting two parts of the township over the Goqo River, partly collapsed in February 2025 after heavy flooding. Since then, a large crater has formed along the part of the collapsed bridge. The hole has now become an illegal dumping site and is full of rubbish.

No government official has given a clear timeline about when the bridge will be fixed, says Sandile Mthembu, a resident of Mondlo. As a result, community members have now begun digging their own trenches along the bridge to redirect water and prevent further damage.

About a kilometre away, Matshombeni Bridge, over the same river, floods even in light rain, says Mthembu. Residents have pooled together funds to buy concrete drain pipes to redirect the water, he says, and are trying to clear culverts and storm drains clogged with rubbish and debris.

Villagers have installed a pipe above Matshombeni Bridge in Mondlo to try and redirect rainwater away from flooding the bridge.

“We’ve tried over and over again to get the municipality to step in, but, even now, there are no interventions,” said Mthembu.

Asked about plans to prevent future floods, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, provincial MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, said ⁠the department “has a proactive spring and summer season disaster plan” and “is working hard to also ensure that residents are fully aware of the risks this season brings”. The department is also building disaster centres in rural areas such as Nkandla, he said.

Buthelezi said the disaster management team provided interim relief after floods and it was then up to other departments to take over. He said municipalities have their own disaster funds and only when those are depleted can they request further funding from the department.

Ezidulwini

In the Ezidulwini area, several homes are still in ruins after the February floods.

Thandi Masondo’s home was destroyed during one of the storms. She had to send her children to live with family members while she and her husband rent a room on a property down the road.

The ward councillor has not come to visit any of the residents since the houses were destroyed, and no one has told them whether they will receive any kind of aid, says Masondo. Without any money to rebuild her home, Masondo has begun collecting material, such as bricks and concrete, from other community members.

Khehla Mkhwanazi, Abaqulusi municipality mayor, told GroundUp the municipality set aside R3-million to respond to upcoming disasters, such as flooding and severe weather.

The municipality also plans to decentralise its disaster centre and travel to each ward by acquiring two vehicles and prefab buildings that can be used as offices. However, Mkhwanazi said this might not be possible due to budget constraints.

In the meantime, residents around Abaqulusi are encouraged to do their own “light maintenance” in their communities when it comes to flood prevention and cleanup, he said. This includes things like helping to patch access roads with stones and keeping their own areas clean to prevent storm drain blockages, he added.

Mkhwanazi said COGTA had built several gravel roads at a cost of R5.4-million after this year’s floods. He did not say if or when the C Bridge in Mondlo would be repaired.

Bridge C in Mondlo collapsed in February 2015 and has not been repaired.

Msinga

In Msinga local municipality, Macingwane Secondary School in Kies River was one of six seriously damaged in the February floods. Four prefab classrooms collapsed.

When GroundUp visited the school in September, none of the classrooms had been rebuilt.

Principal Nhlakanipho Ndebele said as a result, 90 children were sharing a classroom that is meant to have only 40 learners. “The municipality came after the storm and did an inspection. They promised to hand over the findings to the Department of Education, but we’re still waiting.”

Nquthu

Unsafe roads in Nquthu have been an issue over the last decade. The local municipality falls under the Mzinyathi District Municipality.

Residents in the villages of Ndindi, Mbewunye, Magongoloza and Luvis told GroundUp during protests in June that many roads had not been maintained. At the time, officials from the Nquthu municipality and from Mzinyathi district’s transport department promised to send construction vehicles and order gravel.

But none of the roads have been fully repaired.

When GroundUp visited, water was streaming over Manzahubayo Bridge, which connects two parts of east Nquthu across the Mtamvuna River, though it had not rained for a week. Several elderly men, some with walking sticks, were trying to hop over concrete slabs placed across the bridge. One of them, Mmiseni Ndlela, told Groundup they had asked the municipality to raise the height of the bridge so water can flow underneath.

“I am old and my eyesight is not clear. Every time I jump the bridge, someone has to accompany me because it is slippery and I could fall.”

Villagers said learners had to be dropped before the bridge and had to walk home. “If the bridge is not safe for us as adults, how about scholars who have to cross here daily in different weather conditions?” Ndlela asked.

Nquthu communications manager Thokozani Nyandeni said R5.3-million from COGTA disaster funds is being used to fix several roads. The municipality has also been allocated a further R9-million from COGTA through the disaster fund, which is yet to be received, said Nyandeni. This funding will go towards fixing roads and infrastructure damaged by floods.

“We are constructing several roads and other infrastructure programs through Municipal Infrastructure Grant, and through internal funding, this year we have allocated over R57 million to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure.”

A further R8-million from the Human Settlements department will be used to provide housing to disaster-affected families. However, this is not enough, said Nyandeni.

In central Nquthu, Lucky Hlatshwayo, Regional Convener of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in the Mzinyathi District, said even before the floods the municipality had failed to maintain and build roads.

Hlatshwayo said in many places, roads are now too slippery to use because the gravel surface has washed away.

“In Ndindindi, the ambulances told us that our access roads are too slippery and unsafe for them to drive on. In one case, a pregnant woman had an unsafe birth at home because the ambulance could not fetch her,” said Hlatshwayo. When it rains, residents leave their cars at houses of neighbours closer to a main road.

Most of the drainage pipes in the area are blocked, and in heavy rain, the roads become streams.

“We could see our government has forgotten us, and we decided to contribute some cash and fix our roads,” said Patrick Motloung, who lives near a blocked stormwater pipe. “We brought rubble, which was removed from the old, demolished building inside Nquthu town and used it to close trenches on our roads.”

On a road near Ndindindi, when two storm drainpipes collapsed, local villagers came together and fixed the pipes using rocks and concrete. But parts of the roads nearby have been washed away.

Residents of Ndindindi and Luvisi told GroundUp that they have also begun hiring private contractors to fix their roads and walkways. They hope this will mean they are better prepared for the next rainy season.

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