IN PICS, VIDEO | Limpopo villagers pay R20 to cross makeshift bridge to reach local clinic - EWN

More than 30 years into South Africa’s democracy, some of the country’s most rural communities are still forced to swim across dangerous and fast-flowing rivers to access basic healthcare.

A group of frustrated residents has built a makeshift bridge over the swollen Tubatse River, linking the villages of Mafarafara and Ga-Taung near Burgersfort in Limpopo.

It has been almost two weeks since the bridge was constructed using three wooden logs to support the structure’s foundation, corrugated iron sheets to create a walking surface and sticks that serve as handrails.

The bridge is located in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality, which Eyewitness News has reported extensively on over the past two years.

The municipality is among 60 across the country whose grant funding was recently temporarily withheld by the National Treasury.