Francistown repairs damages of thunderstorm

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Friday November 12, 2010 00:00

 

The thunderstorm, which caused havoc in the city brought down trees, broke electricity wires and blew off roofs.

The director of Smart Farmers Feeds, William Muchemi is a devastated man. He says he lost about P500,000 worth of goods and property due to the thunderstorm. Part of the roof of the warehouse was blown off by the wind. The warehouse, renovated in 2008 at a cost of P280,000 was stocked with stock feed and up to 600 bags were soaked by the rainwater.

Muchemi says he has had to dispose of the damaged stock because it is risky to feed it to livestock in that condition because it is poisonous. Computers, a fax machine and account books were also destroyed by the rain. The fact that insurance companies do not cover goods destroyed by natural disasters is not helpful to Muchemi who says his business has yet to recover the money used to rehabilitate the warehouse in 2008.

Witness Mhlabano, the manager of Painkiller Herbalist Chemist, says that after the roof succumbed to the strong winds, rainwater found its way into the shop soaking quantities of herbs and making them useless in the process. When the Mmegi team arrived at the shop, it was being repaired. Mhlabano says it is too early to quantify the loss. His neighbour, Jacob Mmolotsi, the manager of Phokeng general dealer, says that almost the entire ceiling of the shop had to be replaced. He lost bags of mealie-meal, sugar, cigarettes, airtime and other items in the shop. He is also not ready to say how much was lost in monetary terms.

Damage was not limited to business concerns only. The city clerk, Matthews Sebina, revealed at a recent briefing that three government schools, Tatitown, Aerodrome and Phatsimo in Francistown suffered damage to the tune of P1.3 million. Our Lady of the Desert Primary School, a mission school was also damaged. Meanwhile hardware shops and suppliers of building material are experiencing an unusually busy spell. People are purchasing nails, cement, electric cables, doors, hinges, ceilings, corrugated roofing sheets, timber and tools to repair their houses and businesses.

Nazir Patel, the Managing Director of Building Material Supplies (BMS), reveals that he had to extend the business hours on Saturday, the day after the thunderstorm because the shop was busy as people needed building material.  Because of this, BMS opened shop on Sunday as well. For the entire weekend, a 32.5percent discount was imposed on every item and for everybody including those who were not victims of the Friday rains. While BMS was not affected by the storm, its neighbor Buy and Build, also a member of the World Group of Companies was not so lucky.

Although not in a position to define their losses in monetary terms, the branch manager, Lovemore Lopang, says the damage was 'massive.' He explains that the loss to the business comprised mostly timber.  Said Lopang:

'The whole timber shed, complete with its roof and uprights was uprooted with some of it deposited on a tall tree just outside our business premises.' The result was that the timber stock got exposed to rain. Lopang says that timber tends to wobble when exposed to wet weather conditions adding that a lot of it will go to waste.