Shongweni craft market fixes flood damaged road by itself
The Shongweni Farmers & Craft Market has taken upon itself to repair the MR551, which was destroyed by the floods.
A section of the road which leads to the market was washed away.
The market has been closed since 9 April, affecting 180 permanent stall owners.
Organiser Christine Standeaven says it is their bread and butter.
"When we did a little survey with them, their affiliated staff - you know it's not just them you see, its who's at home, who is making things, baking, using woodwork machinery came to over 1 000 people minimum not earning a salary for their families and that was a big motivational aspect for us to get this going. Let's just find the money somewhere and get it done."
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Standeaven says they got in touch with eThekwini Municipality and the relevant departments offered expertise, machines and staff.
But they were unable to supply the material.
"We offered we would find it, tell us what we need, we will find it and pay for it, which we did. eThekwini Metro came on board with their engineers, they had an engineer, sometimes two on-site at all times.
"They oversaw everything. We started on Friday laying all the big pipes underneath to make sure that in future that any water that came in that area would go through these pipes."
They began reconstructing the road 27 May.
The market is set to reopen on Saturday, 11 June with a belated easter egg hunt.
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