National Treasury has approved an allocation of more than R600-million for flood relief.
This was presented at parliament’s Ad hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery. The committee was formed following the devastating floods in KwaZulu Natal, the North West, and the Eastern Cape.
Treasury official, Ulrike Britton, says a total of more than R5 billion has been reprioritised for flood relief.
“Of that R5.3 billion, R674 million has been approved in relation to four emergency relief grants, so its R674 million out of one R1 billion we have in the budget, has already been approved for allocation.”
Land for victims
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says it is engaging different stakeholders and the government to get land so that they can provide temporary residential structures to victims of the floods in April and May in KwaZulu-Natal.
Close to 4 000 homes were destroyed by the floods in the province.
Due to difficulties in locating suitable land, just over 730 temporary residential units have been built as part of government contracts.
UNDP programme manager Bongani Matomela says, “We have also been working with the Red Cross to identify areas where we can provide temporary shelter to the community.”
“ We have identified few sites around the eThekwini area where we will be providing these temporal shelters in the form of Wendy houses and also to emphasise the point that these are temporal measures. The important thing is to make sure that government and other stakeholders make provision to make available structures that are going to be permanent for people to be accommodated.”
KZN Floods | Ramaphosa presents government’s flood relief plan to parliament: April 27, 2022
