A devastating tornado left a trail of destruction in Mthatha and surrounding areas on Saturday night.
The destructive twister, which lasted less than 20 minutes, left hundreds of people homeless and many injured.
Houses and churches’ roofs were ripped off, trees uprooted, crops damaged and livestock affected.
A swathe of Mthatha villages are without electricity as poles were torn down, leaving most of the area in darkness.
Scores of houses in about five villages in the Ncambele administrative area are damaged, and crops that were about to be harvested ruined.
Eskom yesterday warned people to treat all electricity lines and infrastructure brought down by the storm as live and dangerous.
“Ntokozweni village in the Bhityi administrative area was also hit, with 18 people admitted at the Nelson Mandela Central Hospital including children.
“One person is in a critical condition,” said health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo.
Community leaders fear more casualties due to the damaged electrical cables.
Eskom technicians were yesterday criss-crossing the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipal areas attending to affected lines.
In Ncambele, the entire rooftop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa hall was torn off, with rubble landing up to 100m away. The church was built in 1935.
The Wesleyan church nearby was also affected, with parts of a mission house roof ripped off.
The church house was also flooded and furniture damaged. Hundreds of fowls in the area were killed.
When the Dispatch team visited Ncambele near the Mthatha Dam, the Wesleyan Church’s Reverend Mfundisi Ngqoboka, church elders, as well as the Methodist Church’s Reverend Thobile Ntlabathi and church steward Vuyani Ndiko were in separate meetings busy costing the damage to their respective churches.
Neither church was able to hold a service yesterday due to the destruction.
“We are left with a roofless church hall,” said Ndiko.
“The ceiling has been totally damaged and today we did not have a church service as we have no alternative place to worship.
“Not only the two churches have been damaged, but many other houses have been damaged, as well as our crops in the field and livestock.
“Here in Ncambele administrative area there are Mhaga, Ntikilini, Lalini Qudele, Mda and Lucwecwe villages, which are all affected,” said Ndiko.
Some villagers were yesterday afternoon seen on the rooftops of their homes trying to fix their properties.
The OR Tambo District Municipality’s disaster management unit was yesterday busy collecting data, but nobody from the district or the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality could be reached for comment.
In January last year, a storm killed one person in a tavern and injured 80 others, including 23 children, when it tore roofs off homes and battered down walls in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.
Some 652 families in 30 villages were affected. — lulamilef@
dispatch.co.za