Residents make their own bridge

PUPILS and workers in Limpopo unable to go to work and school after a bridge was swept away last week are relieved that a temporary crossing has been erected.

A few enterprising youths and village elders at Mapate in Thohoyandou built a bridge using strong tree logs and tough bamboo-like reeds across the local Dzindi River.

Residents, including the sickly, had been struggling since last Tuesday to get to school, work and public facilities, including clinics in Lwamondo, because it was difficult to find safe crossing points on the overflowing river banks.

Community leader Collert Nemusumbori said they held a meeting with pupils and parents to discuss how to make temporary access and decided on the makeshift bridge.

He said seven unemployed residents then volunteered to fashion the bridge .

"We agreed that all people who use the homemade bridge must pay R2 per person for a return trip."

The fee was to buy materials to maintain the bridge, which volunteers manned between 5am and 6pm daily.

The volunteers' leader, Maluta Nemaungani, said they had taken three days to erect the bridge. "[But], it is not 100% guaranteed. After this heavy rain, the government must make sure to do something with that washed-away bridge."

A passerby, Musiiwa Makhado, 22, said she had no problem with the R2 charge because people could cross the river. "I managed to cross with my six-month-old baby and we are safe."