Good rains in drought-stricken Limpopo as past week’s storm damage is assessed, DA calls for urgent declaration of black frost disaster  

LIMPOPO province is receiving good rains this week which may alleviate the devastating drought that has brought to knees many livestock farmers in parts of the province.

The rains are lashing the province as authorities are in the process to assess damage caused by storms that hit parts of the province a week ago, leaving many people homeless, destroyed critical infrastructure and claimed four lives.

The report about the damages will be submitted to the National Disaster Management Centre by MEC for cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs, Basikopo Makamu.

Makamu said the challenge moving forward was to build resilience within communities to withstand the harsh realities of disasters.

“It is worth mentioning that disasters do not make any prior invitation when they are to happen and that is why people are always caught unprepared,” he said.

The Democratic Allliance (DA) in Limpopo has since called on the government to stop delaying the declaration of a disaster following the devastating black frost and veld fires in parts of the province in June and July this year.

“Without this urgent declaration and release of emergency funding, many subsistence and small-scale farmers will struggle to survive until the next harvest and will lack the input resources needed to plant again.

“It has now been five months since these disasters, the worst to hit Limpopo in 30 years, yet there has been little sign of progress,” DA’s Lindy Wilson said.