The water has receded, but the scars remain. Across the lowveld region of Mpumalanga, where the Crocodile River usually meanders lazily past lush sugarcane fields, the landscape now tells a story of violent upheaval. Bridges have been snapped like twigs. Roads have been swallowed by sinkholes. And in the valleys below, families are sifting through the mud-caked remains of homes that were swept away in the dead of night.
As the sun beats down on the disaster zone, the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) has completed its preliminary assessment of the damage, and the numbers are staggering. Fixing what the floods broke will require billions of rand—a financial burden that falls on three municipalities already struggling with ageing infrastructure and limited budgets.
The recent torrential rains, which meteorologists have described as a once-in-a-century weather event, pummelled the province for over a week, turning gentle streams into raging torrents. The human toll is heartbreaking: over 30 people confirmed dead, their bodies recovered from rivers and debris fields. More than 1,300 houses have been damaged or completely destroyed, leaving thousands homeless and dependent on emergency shelter in community halls and tents.
But it is the destruction of public infrastructure that MISA warns will have the longest-lasting impact on the region’s recovery.
MISA teams, dispatched to the worst-hit areas within hours of the waters subsiding, have spent the past two weeks conducting detailed assessments. Their focus was on the three municipalities that bore the brunt of the disaster: the City of Mbombela, the Nkomazi Local Municipality, and the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality. What they found was a picture of systemic destruction.
In Mbombela, the provincial capital, several key arterial roads have been rendered impassable. The R40, a vital link between the city and the surrounding agricultural areas, has been undermined in multiple places, with sections of asphalt hanging precariously over empty spaces where soil used to be. A bridge on the approach to Riverside precinct, crucial for commuters and emergency services, has developed structural cracks that engineers fear could lead to collapse.
In Nkomazi, the damage is even more severe. This municipality, bordering eSwatini and Mozambique, is a patchwork of rural communities connected by gravel roads and small bridges. Many of those connections no longer exist. At least 12 bridges have been completely washed away, isolating villages for days and forcing residents to make dangerous crossings on foot. Farmers in the area report that access to markets has been cut off, with tons of produce rotting in fields because transport trucks cannot get through.
But perhaps the most complex challenge lies in Bushbuckridge, one of the country’s poorest and most densely populated municipalities. Here, the floods exposed the fragility of infrastructure built for a different era. Roads that were already in poor condition have been utterly destroyed. Water treatment plants, inundated by floodwaters, have failed, leaving communities without clean drinking water for weeks. The risk of waterborne disease outbreaks is a constant concern for health officials.
“Mpumalanga has been dealt a devastating blow,” said a MISA official involved in the assessment, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We are not talking about patching potholes. We are talking about rebuilding entire sections of the province’s transportation network. Bridges need to be redesigned and reconstructed. Roads need to be realigned. This is a multi-billion-rand project, and it will take years.”
The preliminary cost estimate, which MISA will present to national government in the coming weeks, runs into the billions. The final figure will depend on the extent of subsurface damage—whether the floodwaters have undermined bridge foundations or washed away the base layers of roads—and the cost of materials, which have skyrocketed in recent years.
For the mayors and municipal managers of Mbombela, Nkomazi, and Bushbuckridge, the MISA report presents a daunting challenge. Their budgets, already stretched thin by existing service delivery obligations, cannot absorb a shock of this magnitude. They are looking to national government—specifically the National Disaster Management Centre and National Treasury—for a lifeline.
“We cannot rebuild on our own,” admitted a senior official from the City of Mbombela. “Our revenue base is simply not large enough. We are hoping that the declaration of a national disaster will unlock funding. But we also know that the fiscus is under pressure. Every province is asking for money. The competition for resources will be fierce.”
As the officials tally the costs and draft the funding proposals, the people of Mpumalanga are getting on with the business of survival. In a village outside Malelane, a group of women carry buckets of water from a communal tap, the nearest source since their piped supply failed. In Bushbuckridge, children walk an extra five kilometres to school, their path taking them around a washed-out bridge. And in Mbombela, a taxi driver shakes his head as he navigates a detour, adding an hour to his daily route.
The floods have passed, but the crisis continues. The billions of rand needed for repairs are not just numbers on a spreadsheet. They are the price of reconnecting communities, of restoring access to schools and clinics, of rebuilding the arteries that keep the province alive. For Mpumalanga, the road to recovery is long, and it begins with a single, daunting question: where will the money come from?
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