Cape Town resident Fezeka Sigingqi could not buy bread on Saturday morning after heavy rain flooded her street and blocked her gate.
Sigingqi, from New Rest in Gugulethu, said she and her neighbours in Indwe Street had to wait for the water to subside before they could leave their homes.
Flooding had become a regular occurrence in the area since 2020. “I’ve lived in this area since 1994, when it was still an informal settlement,” she said.
“New Rest was developed in 2005 and the houses were built in 2007. The flooding started in 2020. The water comes from the N2 and flows down, flooding three streets — Indwe, Thambo and Bhonga. Indwe is the worst affected. I can’t leave my house when it rains. I can’t buy bread. There are days when I can’t get to work because of the flooding.”
Her neighbour, Siziphiwe Matshaya, echoed her concerns. “I’ve had to move to my parents’ house because I can’t access my own home,” she said.
“The streets started flooding around 3pm on Friday. We only managed to come out this afternoon [Saturday] after the water subsided. It’s unbearable. Children can’t get to school when it floods on school days.”
Disaster risk management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said rescue teams were assessing the extent of the damage in a number of areas including Mfuleni, Gugulethu and Khayelitsha.
Powell said the Vygieskraal canal had burst its banks, causing further flooding on a number of roads in the Athlone/Belgravia area. Structural damage includes:
- about 500 structures affecting 2,000 residents in Vygieskraal informal settlement;
- about 200 structures affecting 1,000 people in Haji Ebrahim Crescent; and
- about 150 RDP homes affecting an estimated 750 people in Vygieskraal.
Zalisile Mjo, chair of the New Rest area committee, said about 1,000 of the roughly 2,000 homes in the area were affected.
“The issue lies in the way New Rest was designed. Engineers created what they call a ‘pond’ to collect stormwater from the streets but it often gets overwhelmed and the area floods.”
Mjo said the pond is not blocked by debris, but simply cannot cope with the volume of rain.
“We get a lot of complaints from residents. Some can’t leave their homes. Cars are stuck in their yards. In places where the water has subsided, residents have laid bricks and tyres to create a path to the road. The rest are still trapped.”
Ward councillor Bongani Ngcombolo too blamed poor planning and added overpopulation as a factor.
“There are more than 3,600 people on the voters register, but the actual number is much higher due to unregistered residents, including children,” he said.
“The area isn’t designed to accommodate this population. The sewer network is overloaded, and some of the waste ends up in stormwater drains. Municipal workers often have to clear foreign objects from the drains.”
Ngcombolo said the city needs to expand the capacity of both the sewer network and stormwater systems.
“We’ve called in the city’s stormwater team and they’re working on clearing the drains,” he said. “Kanana, not far from here, is also flooded. Informal settlements like Europe, Barcelona, Vukuzenzela, Lusaka and Borcherds Quarry have also been affected.”
He thanked the humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers, for stepping in to assist residents.
“They brought food for those who are unable to cook because their homes are flooded,” he said. “In some areas electricity is still out.”
The province’s disaster management team issued a warning, saying disruptive rain would persist until the end of the weekend.
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