Top officials at a KwaZulu-Natal municipality have leapt to the defence of a R2m causeway that was unveiled on Tuesday.

Mayor of the IFP-led KwaNongoma local municipality Albert Mcwango told Sowetan last night the causeway which connects Nzondwane and Ndongane rural communities was built to prevent loss of life after there was a number of schoolchildren who had tried to cross the Nzondwane River when it was flooded.

"There have been some fatalities where schoolchildren died. The structure is not a bridge, it is a causeway and meets the requirements of a causeway. This is not an isolated project. It is part of an 8km road which links the two communities to the outside world," Mcwango said.

Speaker of legislature of the IFP-led KwaNongoma local municipality Prince Zulu said the gravel road causeway, which came under a flood of criticism on social media, municipalities in rural areas often faced budgetary constraints and their bridges were of similar standard to that of Nongoma.

"What people are saying is not a true reflection. The bridge consists of a long gravel road and connects two communities. The bridge was built following complaints from members of the public that when it's heavily raining, people, including schoolchildren, had to risk their lives to cross to the other side," he said. 

"People are good at criticising from a distance without understanding that the bridge is there to assist the communities," he said.

Zulu said those criticising the bridge should stop playing politics and rather focus their attention on the structure's workmanship.

"Some people are busy criticising this bridge because the municipality is run by the IFP. The politicians are not the people who built the bridge. If people are unhappy about the quality of the bridge, they must report the matter to the Hawks for criminal investigations," said Zulu.

He said this would help people to hold the engineers who erected the bridge accountable. "The money that built the bridge belongs to the Nongoma people not the IFP. And if the people of Nongoma feel that they have been robbed they should complain to the police."

Twitter user PhoshPk observed: "No head and wingwalls, floorslab and reno matressess on the outlet of the stormwater pipes. Already water is ponding (sic) on the stormwater pipes. I doubt if backfill done next to the concrete structure was compacted in layers. First heavy rain i see massive soil erosion."

Lexi Van asked: "Where's the bridge?"

HotWater Frog wrote: "Diameter of pipes too small. They will block and the next flood will outflank one of the poorly consolidated approaches, rendering the crossing much worse than if they had done nothing. A culvert should have been built, for less than quarter of a million."​