DURBAN - HUMAN Settlements and Public Works MEC Jomo Sibiya has announced that the department has allocated R15.4 million to assist families affected by recent storms in the Msunduzi Local Municipality in Pietermaritzburg.
Sibiya said severe weather patterns destroyed houses and left hundreds of families destitute on December 22 and 30.
“When we visited some of the families on January 1 with local leadership, we committed to ensure that we would move with speed to turn around the situation.”
Sibiya added that the department met the leadership of uMgungundlovu District and Msunduzi Local Municipality to discuss a package of interventions to assist the affected communities.
“We wish to inform the people of Msunduzi Local Municipality who have been affected by the storms that an integrated approach involving provincial government, the district and local municipalities has been adopted to ensure that they rebuild their homes.”
Anthony Waldhausen of the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics said the damage had been extensive.
“We have had electricity affected and have gone days without power.
“Residents have had damage to their properties both inside and outside due to flooding caused by the rains.
“We haven’t received any disaster support yet and affected residents had to rely on other residents in the municipality for food and relief.”
Sibiya said that the storms also had a disastrous impact on social infrastructure as schools, public health institutions and other government infrastructure had been damaged.
He said the R15.4m had been set aside to assist the profiled families in Msunduzi.
The assistance needed included:
- 115 houses that need asbestos replacement.
- 17 families that need temporary residential units.
- 110 families that need building materials.
- 271 families that need roof tile replacement.
Sibiya said the department would at an event today, with the leadership of both the district and local municipalities, unveil plans to assist affected families.
Sibiya added that the department was fully aware that there were communities in various municipalities that had been affected.
On Wednesday The Mercury reported that more than 1 600 households had been affected by recent storms and damaging winds across KwaZulu-Natal.
The KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department said storm-related damage had been reported across the province in the past few weeks.
It said it had affected well over 1 692 households in the form of housing structural damage, injuries, fatalities and drownings.
THE MERCURY