The widespread destruction of roads and bridges in the recent floods in Limpopo and Mpumalanga is not an accident but the result of years of corruption, mismanagement, and under-investment in public infrastructure, writes Mmametlwe Sebei
What should be systems of connection and safety have become death traps and instruments of isolation. The widespread destruction of roads and bridges is not an accident but the result of years of corruption, mismanagement, and under-investment in public infrastructure.
The weeks of rain have washed away the last pretence that the current system works. Our people are drowning in neglect and thirsting for service delivery, jobs and justice. The rains have exposed the rotting foundations of this neglect. Our people deserve more than condolences after the fact; they deserve a state that acts with urgency, competence, and compassion, leaving no community behind.
The General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) expresses its profound grief and mounting anger at the escalating humanitarian disaster unfolding across north-eastern South Africa and into Mozambique. For weeks, since December 2025, the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga have endured relentless heavy rainfall.
The overflow of the Crocodile, Sabie, Letaba, Sand, Luvuvhu, and Limpopo rivers has now turned into a
catastrophic flood, claiming lives, homes, and livelihoods. The human and environmental cost is comprehensive and devastating.
Heavy rainfall, strong winds, lightning and flooding have resulted in loss of life, significant damage to infrastructure and property, environmental degradation and displacement of communities.
The confirmed death toll has risen to 37—20 in Mpumalanga and 17 in Limpopo, with communities in
Phalaborwa, Giyani, and Thohoyandou reporting drownings. These are not mere statistics; they are our members, their families, and our neighbours.
Each number represents a life erased, a family shattered. We must also sound the alarm that these conditions are ravaging rural villages and informal settlements far from the media’s focus, where the scale of loss remains undocumented, and relief is even scarcer.
This prolonged crisis has laid bare the state’s utter impotence to protect its people.
Weeks of rainfall have been met with days of delay and a desperate, under-resourced
response. The declaration of a national disaster, while necessary, is a stark admission of a
failure that was foreseeable.
Where was the pre-emptive deployment for the most vulnerable? Where are the swift, coordinated rescue operations and the dignified, efficient relief for the desperate? The people of Mopani, Vhembe, Waterberg, and Sekhukhune districts, and countless other areas suffering in silence, have been left to face rising waters and diminishing hope, exposing a chilling lack of preparedness and political will.
This tragedy is a confluence of three systemic failures. The Climate Emergency is here. These floods are a direct symptom of a planet in crisis. Southern Africa, and our Mozambican brothers and sisters who share these river systems, are on the frontline of extreme weather events fueled by global inaction and corporate pollution.
The slow and inadequate mobilisation of emergency services reveals a government that is reactive, not proactive. The bravery of ordinary citizens and strained NGOs should not be the first line of defence in a national disaster.
GIWUSA stands in solidarity with all affected workers and communities in South Africa and Mozambique, both in the spotlight and in the shadows of this crisis. We demand an immediate and radical shift from the current paralysis.
An urgent, massive, and transparent relief effort is required, and should include deployment of all necessary state resources immediately to reach every cut-off community, including those outside media focus, provide sustained aid, and guarantee shelter, clean water, food, and healthcare.
Support cross-border humanitarian efforts.
GIWUSA also demands an overhaul of the current disaster management system, properly fund, equip, and staff new disaster management centres with community-based early warning systems and rapid-response capacity. Above all, we demand a mass public works programme for a just transition and climate resilience.
This must be a publicly-driven commitment to build life-saving infrastructure, construct and repair stormwater drainage, bridges, roads, dams, and water reticulation systems across all provinces, explicitly linking flood prevention in the parts of the country with water security in others.
*Mmametlwe Sebei is President of GIWUSA. This is an edited version of a statement from the union’s response to the recent floods.
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