19 Jan 2025

 The then overflowing Limpopo river has reportedly subsided and fears of the river flooding Lentswelemoriti have dissipated.

Not only were the residents of the village in a St. Engenas Zion Christian Church private land fearful of flooding, but were also afraid of two hippopotamus reportedly spotted in the water that was Lentswelemoriti bound.

The sighting of the giant water animals caused panic and stir amongst teachers whose houses would have been the first to be engulfed by the floods and invaded by the hippos in question.

However, the water, forced into a tributary that feeds into the Limpopo river, could only flow as far as about 600 metres from the houses on Friday and subsided on Saturday, a relief the residents prayed for.

It is reported that the residents’ fears were justified since the water once flooded the teachers’ houses in 2016. Hippos were reportedly sighted again during the 2016-flooding incident.

However, senior Priest of St. Engenas ZCC, Mr. Jebe Mogotsi said threats of flooding were not as pronounced as during the 2016 incident. He explained that the area where the water flooded used to be ploughing fields before people abandoned ploughing. It is stone throw away from the confluence of Limpopo and Motloutse rivers where the upsurge would force the water back into the feeder streams and cause flooding.

“We hardly prepare for such eventualities as floods and the threats of animals they bring along, but we simply pray to God to protect us and drive these animals back to where they came from,” said senior priest Mogotsi who has been a resident of Lentswelemoriti since 1953 when he landed from Ramotswa.

Mr. Mogotsi said part of the interventions they sought was alerting government disaster management team about the possibilities of flooding and the bad state of the road that only requires four-wheel drive vehicles.  The said vehicles do not only manoeuvre the muddy terrains, which throws some into spinning and sliding, but had to go up and down the streams and the hills on an alternative route to access the village.

The known route to the village has been rendered unusable by the flooded streams that cut across it to feed Motloutse and Limpopo rivers. The flooding streams have affected both the eastern and western entrances into the village with children  from Mashatu Game Reserve reportedly missing school in fear of being swept away by the waters or getting stuck in Lentswelemoriti, according to Mr. Mogotsi.

Prior to the rains, during the independence celebrations, Mr. Mogotsi appealed for a tarred road into the village whilst alive to the challenges that lied ahead. He was aware that the village, which is also a St. Engenas ZCC shrine, was in a private land and therefore rendered developments a difficulty. ENDS