Gift of the Givers continue efforts to bring relief to flood-hit Swartland

CAPE TOWN - Efforts to bring relief to flood hit residents in the Swartland continue.

Last week, farm dam walls collapsed amid heavy rains - resulting in flooding in the Chatsworth and Riverlands communities - near Malmesbury.

"There is no electricity since Thursday when the disaster occurred. There is no clean drinking water, so our teams are providing the community with their daily hot meals. We had to deploy two of our water tankers from the Eastern Cape to the Riverlands area. They are currently providing clean drinking water to the communities," said Gift of the Givers Ali Sablay.

He added firewood will also be delivered on Monday to ensure residents can keep warm.

ALSO READ: Owner of collapsed Riverlands dams should have known about the risk - Majodina

"There were other concerns, people requesting food for their animals, domesticated animals, cats and dogs, small scale farmers are quite concerned about their cattle and horses that have not eaten for days. We are organising the drop off of fodder for these farmers."

Sablay people's said emotions are running high.

"People are breaking down while speaking to us...explaining to us that most of these residents are retired teachers, priests, etc...and they've informed us how they've used all their savings to build these homes, and they don't have insurance, and everything is completely either destroyed and there's nothing they could save so the emotions are very high at the moment."

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina visited the area over the weekend.