Guyuni Clinic, in Vhembe District, is located about 160 kms east of Makhado. According to nurses, heavy rains make the road to the clinic almost impossible to navigate for ambulances. While non-stop rains during the season pose a challenge to municipal attempts to fix the road, villagers have taken the matter into their own hands.

“Ever since the heavy rains started, we’ve had problems with all the patients who should be transferred to other hospitals,” Guyuni Clinic nurse, Rihangwele Ramuhulu told OurHealth. “The road gets very muddy and it’s very difficult for cars to travel on it.”

“It’s a real problem when we need an ambulance,” she continued. “We get very scared that something will happen to one of the patients while we are trying to get them from one side of the road to the other, where they can get into an ambulance that can take them to nearest hospital.”

[quote float=”right”]”We get very scared that something will happen to one of the patients while we are trying to get them … an ambulance”

The heavy rains have been going on since the beginning of this year, some of the villagers often are not been able to go out to work or school.

Guyuni resident Ambani Madzivha said villagers could not even get to the nearest village, Hamabila, because they had been cut off.

“The children who attend school at Matavhela Secondary School now have to push through the bush to get to where the road is still safe and catch transport to school.”

Another Guyuni resident Thendo Mulanganeni said the road problem had been reported to the municipality but, because of the non-stop rain, the municipality could not fix it immediately.

“At the moment, some of us villagers are trying to make a temporary way for the emergency vehicles to get through to the clinic,” Mulanganeni said. “We’re praying for the rain to stop so that the municipality can come and fix the road.”

Check out photos of the road on Facebook