President Cyril Ramaphosa will this evening at 8pm address the nation on the government’s response to catastrophic floods which have devastated parts of KwaZulu- Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The address follows a special Cabinet meeting on Sunday where government assessed the social and economic aftermath of flooding in the two provinces and work underway to provide relief and rebuild.
President Ramaphosa visited the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality last Wednesday where he received an update incorporating the responses of local, provincial and national authorities to the provincial disaster.
The President has since the start of the emergency undertaken consultations with the National Disaster Management Centre and the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Disaster Management.
The president’s address will be carried live on SABC channels including radio, television and online.
KZN FLOODS | Over six hundred schools damaged:
Meanwhile, members of the South African army, the South African Military Health Services and the air force are among the 10 000 SANDF members who are being deployed to flood-stricken KwaZulu-Natal.
At least 443 people have died in the floods in the last week.
Thousands more have been displaced.
The SANDF in a statement says members will be deployed to support Co-operative Governance structures in the province.
In a statement, the SANDF says the South African Army was instructed to activate 10 000 troops for Operation Chariot.
Members will support the building of field accommodation, the provisioning of fresh water, the deployment of electricians for restoring power and plumbers for restoring water supply in affected areas.
Air capabilities will also be deployed to assist search and rescue and in the transportation of humanitarian relief.
Support from the Military Health Services includes ambulances and medical personnel.
The South African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria) has lamented the exclusion of certain members of society from having access to insurance. This as the KwaZulu Natal province continues with the mop up activities following floods that battered the province, and the death toll currently at 443, some still missing, and scores displaced.
With the extensive damage to infrastructure in the area Sasria stakeholder relations manager Muzi Dladla, has called the exclusion of certain demographics sad.
“It is very sad for those individuals because there would not be any type of cover that would be there. Obviously, government would naturally be as part of their contingent liability. Under fiscal threats, they would have to find ways of relieving, but I think maybe going forward, for the future, a discussion has to be held between the private sector as well as government. Because I don’t think that government on their own can be able to handle this amount of disaster.”
