Devastating winds cause havoc in Mutale

Health services in the rural Mutale was dealt a hammer blow, after heavy winds and storms trashed the Mutale Health Centre, leaving the maternity ward's ablution block a watery mess and the mobile clinic without a roof.

The severe storms and heavy winds, which also affected a large portion of the population in the area, took place on Sunday evening.

Elsewhere, at the Tshandama RDP houses, more than 20 families were displaced when their houses were damaged by the winds.

During a visit by Limpopo Mirror to the area earlier this week, health officials from the district and the province were busy assessing the damage.

The secretary of the board of the health centre, Mr Thabelo Nalana, said he was woken by a call at around 20:00 on Sunday. “I rushed to the centre only to find that a lot of damage was caused. Beds, medicine and partsw of the maternity ward were under water, while the roof of the mobile clinic was blown away. We are just happy that the department acted swiftly and dispatched a team to assess the damage and we are happy that they said they will fix the damage and treat the incident as a disaster” he said.

Mutale municipality spokesperson, Mr Thiathu Ravhura confirmed that they suffered huge losses when many RDP houses were damaged at the nearby Tshandama. "We are still assessing the damage and to see what we can do to assist our people," he said.

The department’s spokesperson, Ms Adele van der Linde said that they are working hard to normalise the situation. "We have directed some of our patients to the clinics at Thengwe and Matavhela, but the outpatients department is still functioning normally. Our officials have already done the assessment and we will be working speedily to fix the structures," she said.

Date:22 November 2013

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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