Villagers in the Mthatha Mouth area of Ngqeleni are risking their lives crossing the Mthatha River in kayaks and small boats after floods washed away part of a bridge linking their communities to Coffee Bay.
The damaged bridge, along a main gravel route, has left residents, including elderly people, with little choice but to cross the river by boat before climbing a ladder to reach the road on the other side.
Vehicles can no longer use the bridge, forcing residents to make alternative transport arrangements, often at additional cost.
The bridge was damaged during the devastating floods that struck the Eastern Cape in 2025 and was repaired, but part of the structure washed away again during recent heavy rains in the OR Tambo district.
Tshani village resident Warren Hudson, from the Mdumbi area, alerted the Dispatch to the plight of communities affected by the collapse.
He said the damage had also disrupted water supplies to parts of Ngqeleni because water pipes had been attached to the bridge.
“It is a really painful situation now. People are desperate,” he said.
“Even if you cross the river, there is a step ladder that people have to climb on to get to the road. Some people are very old [and unable to climb].
"Recently, a lady kept falling down while trying to climb on this ladder and she was fortunate not to suffer any injuries.
"This is very risky and we are worried that people might get hurt if the bridge is not repaired soon.”
For local entrepreneur and DJ Nkosikhona Duba, popularly known as DJ Calibri, the damaged bridge has turned routine journeys into a costly and difficult exercise.
The Dispatch spoke to Duba on Friday as he was transporting his sound equipment from his home in Mthatha Mouth to Maphuzi, outside Coffee Bay, where he also owns a flat that is being renovated.
With his vehicle unable to cross the river, he has to load his equipment onto a small boat and arrange another vehicle to collect it on the opposite bank.
“I have to load my sound system and everything on a small boat and get it across the river each time. I pay about R20 to do that,” he said.
“My own car is parked at home and I cannot use it. So when I get across the river, I am forced to borrow a car from someone so that I can load my stuff and be on my way.”
Duba said the bridge had initially suffered extensive damage during the 2025 floods, which claimed 103 lives in the Eastern Cape and caused damage running into millions of rand to roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
He questioned the quality of the repairs carried out after those floods, saying the structure had failed again when heavy rains struck a few weeks ago.
“After that, they [government] did fix the road but I guess they did such a bad repair job that it easily washed away when there were floods again a few weeks back.
"It does not matter if you are carrying groceries, you just load everything into a kayak to get across. But it does not end there, you still have to go over the step ladder with all your groceries. Everyone, including elderly people had to cross using a kayak when they went to collect their pension payouts recently.
"We are really struggling and it is not easy for elderly people to climb up a ladder,” Duba said.
The outgoing Nyandeni local municipality referred questions about the damaged bridge to the Eastern Cape transport department, saying the structure fell under the provincial government's jurisdiction.
King Sabata Dalindyebo local municipality spokesperson Sonwabo Mampoza also confirmed that the bridge was the responsibility of the provincial transport department.
However, he expressed concern about the dangers residents faced while crossing the river.
He said it was “too risky for people to have to cross a big river like that because anything can happen.”
“But we are hopeful that it will get fixed soon. We just plead with people to be careful of the places they cross in because at this time of the year, rivers also tend to swell upstream and carry volumes of water with them downstream which could potentially pose a huge risk to the lives of the people who are trying to cross.”
Coffee Bay falls within the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality.
Provincial transport department spokesperson Unathi Binqose had not responded to questions about the damaged bridge by the time of publication on Friday.
Meanwhile, the OR Tambo district municipality officially opened a R79m disaster management centre in Libode, in the Nyandeni municipality, on Monday.
The new facility is intended to improve the district's ability to respond to emergencies and disasters, including the floods that have repeatedly damaged infrastructure and disrupted communities across the region.
District mayor Mesuli Ngqondwana said the centre's success would depend not only on its facilities but also on the municipality's ability to respond effectively when disasters occurred.
“It would not help us to be excited about having this world-class building if our systems internally as the institution are not prepared for us to be the best centre in terms of production,” he was quoted as saying.
“This must be our obsession as the district now, that we want to be the best disaster management centre, because we have brought in people who understand the mission, people who know the job and purpose.”
