Durban — With eMpangeni being hit by severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall on Monday afternoon, many structures were left damaged, as a result, one person was killed and others hospitalised.
Qalakabusha Prison in eMpangeni is among the structures which were affected, with some parts of the property left torn down.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) national gender co-ordinator, Gretta Govender, said the damage in Qalakabusha prison was beyond repair and caused great security concerns.
“Qalakabusha is a maximum security prison which means serious crime offenders are kept there so there should not be any risk of escaping.
“I was not happy with what I saw there yesterday (Monday), a whole section was open and prisoners were just looking up at the skies,” said Govender.
She said the union was not happy with the state of the prison and as a result it should be closed and prisoners moved to other prisons in KZN.
The Department of Correctional Services, however, urged the public not to panic.
Spokesperson Thulani Mdluli said although some parts of the prison were damaged by the thunderstorms, this should not cause panic.
He said the department had set tight security measures to ensure, regardless of the destruction, no prisoners get a chance to escape.
“Even though the property was damaged, no injuries were reported.
“As a security department it is our duty to guarantee that the premises function on a daily basis and we have dispatched teams to check on the damage,” said Mdluli.
He said there was a possibility of temporarily suspending the visitation of prisoners and court appearances might be affected.
The mayor of uMhlathuze Municipality, Xolani Ngwezi, said the municipality was trying its best to mitigate the damage in the region.
Ngwezi said: “What happened was unfortunate, especially since some roads had to be closed. We are trying to clear and make sure that there is movement and no traffic on the road.
“We have heard that the Richards Bay Airport has been damaged, our technical team is getting pieces to find out what needs to be done,” said Ngwezi.
He said on Monday night after the thunderstorms, they had to ask for flights not to land at the Richards Bay Airport, but rather at King Shaka.
“It is quite a very bad experience because eMpangeni Sanlam Centre Mall was also hit and some shops were damaged, especially the roof and some businesses.
“We are trying to resuscitate that to make sure that life goes on,” said Ngwezi.
He said he was informed that some houses were in a bad state and the municipality would make efforts to urgently assist the victims.
The owner of Rollo Roofing in eMpangeni, Justin Rollo, said fixing the damage was going to take time.
“The situation is bad and some buildings that were damaged are going to require over R1 million to fix.
“The Sanlam Centre’s roof and Game store has collapsed, we still have a lot of work cut out for us. Our priority is to try to help our customers and get the business up and running since we lost almost everything in the warehouse,” said Rollo.
He said that on Monday it was even hard to see the road.
“There was also light and heavy hail that came through on the outskirts of eMpangeni.”
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995
Daily News