David Maruma was in bed at 2am on Friday when he was jolted awake by his nephew’s frantic banging on the door. For a few moments, the father-of-five thought his family was falling victim to another robbery.
He quickly realised the reason for his nephew’s panicked screams: their home in the Roodepoort suburb of Hamberg was being swallowed by rising floodwaters.
“There was water everywhere,” said Maruma, his eyes haunted, as he recalled the water level that reached past his waist. “Our couches were floating past us … We have never experienced anything like it.”
His family was one of 339 people affected by the floods that battered Johannesburg over the weekend, submerging vehicles, trapping homeowners on roofs, collapsing walls, and decimating shacks and houses. About 269 of these structures were swept away.
Damage caused by floods in Hamberg, Roodepoort.
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