Village residents plead for intervention from highest office over death trap makeshift bridge that links them to the world
Lucas Ledwaba
“Can we please exist also? We are a part of South Africa. [But] it seems Potoane doesn’t exist. Our streets are bad, we have no water, our taps are dry,” Mpipo Mahlangu’s words echo the resigned feeling of hopelessness among her fellow residents in the village of Potoane, about 90km north of the capital Pretoria.
Concerned senior citizens of the village have written to the Office of the President and the Public Protector, to ask for intervention over a death trap bridge across the Apies river, known to locals as Tshwane.
The bridge, a collection of carelessly arranged wooden logs, steel fences, and two cement pillars, was dislodged by flooding during heavy rains in 2019. It is the only linkage for pedestrians wishing to reach Mathibestad. Mathibestad is where locals access social services, banking, schooling, and other government services.
In the letters written in Setswana and signed by elderly residents Claudina Modise and Morongwe Madumo, they plead for intervention saying using the bridge is like leaving one’s fate in the hands of God.
“Leborogo le re le dirisang go kagabaganya noka e kgolo e le mo seemong se se tsitsibanyang mmele, go kgabaganya ka lona, ke Modimo nthuse. O baya bophelo ba gago mo kotsing (The bridge we use to cross this great river is in a shocking state, using it to cross over is like leaving your fate in the hands of God help me. You risk your life),” the letter reads.
The concerned residents say they have been asking the Moretele Local Municipality to build a new bridge since 2001 without success.
Potoane is in many ways, as Mahlangu alludes, one of those settlements that seem to have been completely forgotten by time.
According to the 2011 Census only 342 people were living there in 102 households.
The village had 89,2% formal dwellings with only 3,9% with a flush toilet connected to sewerage, 2% weekly refuse removal and although the taps have been empty for many years, 65,7% of residents have piped water in their dwellings.
The 2022 Census statistics do not provide specific statistics about Potoane but reveal that the population for Moretele Local Municipality stood at 219 120 with only 18,9% of households with flush toilets connected to sewerage and 21,1% having access to piped water in their dwellings.
One of the village elders Selina Motlhamme recalls that when she was growing up there in the 1960s, there was no school in Potoane. As a result, they had to cross the river to walk to school in Mathibestad. Then there was no bridge.
“The elders used to help us cross the river on foot. They would hold our hands to ensure we were not swept away. But when the river was flooded we stayed home,” she says.
She remembers also that after crossing the river on foot in winter they would make a fire to dry their clothes and warm themselves.
She is now a pensioner and the situation at the river has remained pretty much the same.
Mahlangu, like those who came before her faces great odds when crossing the river on her way to work.
“I cross here in the morning on my way to work and in the evening. In winter my son accompanies me using a torch to light our way. I’m worried that if he’s not with me and I fall into the river, nobody will know what happened to me,” she says.
Every morning on her way to work around 5 am, Mahlangu crawls up the precarious makeshift bridge to get to work at the offices of the Moretele Local Municipality in Mathibestad, where she’s stationed as a security officer.
“There are reptiles here, leguaans which dash into the water when I approach. It’s dark and slippery in the morning, too misty and dangerous,” she says.
The bus service that used to operate in the village which until 1994 was part of the Bophuthatswana homeland administration, no longer runs.
Residents either take taxis, donkey-drawn carts, or walk. If she were to take a taxi to work and back daily, she would have to spend around R650 a month, a huge dent in her earnings.
“I don’t have that kind of money. It will be tough to use a taxi every day because I just don’t have that kind of money,” she says.
Taxis from Potoane travel along the Thulwe road to Makapanstad, then onto the Mathibestad road.
To avoid using the koto Mahlangu and other residents have to follow the taxi route on foot, a distance of 10km.
But to get a taxi they have to walk along a deserted stretch to get to the main road I Makapanstad.
“It’s not safe at all walking along that route especially during that time of the morning,” says Mahlangu.
In early November, frustrated by the seeming lack of action from the authorities, Mahlangu posted a video of herself river crossing on Facebook. The trending video elicited some response from the authorities.
“I then got a response from the Office of the President to say they have escalated the matter. I’m tired of this. Whenever I get to work my clothes are dirty because I have to crawl up this thing,” she says.
While Mahlangu and the younger, agile youth can still take their chances across the makeshift bridge, elders like Morongwe Letta Madumo cannot take the risk.
“Our grandfathers used to harvest trunks from the lehonno tree to make a bridge over the river. We are old now. We cannot use this bridge. So when we need to get to the other side we cross at a shallow point assisted by young people. It is also risky. But what other choice do we have?” she says.
Until recently before a scholar transport service was introduced to the village, learners like Tshiamo Kotoane navigated the bridge on their way to school daily. The scholar transport service doesn’t run on Saturdays. So to attend extra classes in Mathibestad, Kotoane and his peers also have to use the bridge.
“I can say I used this koto for the past 12 years. It was okay but in 2019 it started giving us problems because of the heavy rains. It’s scary walking up here. It’s not safe at all,” says the grade 11 learner who almost slipped while making his way across the koto.
Madumo says they have been pleading for a bridge from the authorities for a long.
“I’m 65 now. We have been pleading for a bridge for so long. Even if they build a small bridge to allow one vehicle [and pedestrians] we will be grateful. That will help a lot,” she says.
The Presidency was sent a media inquiry on 28 November in which we asked if they received the letter from the residents, what action were they planning to take and by when. But this went unanswered.
The Moretele Local Municipality acknowledged receipt of our enquiry on the same day and promised to respond, but have still not done so.
Besides the pressing issue of the bridge over the Apies residents also face a daily struggle with a lack of clean running water.
In decades past the river and a few hand-operated taps connected to communal boreholes were their only source of water. With the dawn of democracy more communal water taps were introduced in the village. But this has not helped.
In mid-November, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Hammanskraal, about 20km from Potoane for a voter registration campaign.
Residents repeated the cry of Potoane residents that their biggest challenge was access to clean, running water.
In his response to the water problems in Hammanskraal, Ramaphosa said during his visit to Mandelavillage that the “matter of water is being addressed.”
“We have now escalated it to the national level. It used to be left for attention to local government because that is their area of responsibility. As we speak now work is being done.”
But it’s not clear when the long wait for clean, regular water will end for residents.
“We have not had water in many years. My son is 21 years old. I doubt he has ever seen water coming out of these taps in the village,” says Mahlangu. – Mukurukuru Media
