By Zukile Majova and Matthew Savides
The KwaZulu-Natal cabinet could decide on Wednesday to declare some storm-hit areas in the province disaster areas.
This would pave the way for funding to be released to assist the victims of the vicious storms that lashed parts of the province at the weekend.
Local Government MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu will table a report before the cabinet on Wednesday, outlining the extent and cost of the damage caused by hailstorms to houses at KwaDukuza - where more than 1 500 homes were damaged - and Bulwer.
After visiting the areas on Monday, he said homes with asbestos roofing were the most severely affected.
"I am here as political head of disaster management in the province, on behalf of the government, to assess the extent of the damage so that (tomorrow) I can deliver a report to the provincial cabinet.
"Cabinet will then decide whether the areas affected can be declared provincial or district disaster-affected areas.
"As government, we sympathise with the communities here because of the natural disaster that has afflicted these areas and caused damaged to people's properties," said Mabuyakhulu.
He took with him blankets, plastic sheeting and tents.
Mabuyakhulu also expressed concern that homes had asbestos roofs. He said asbestos should have been removed because the government had deemed it a health risk.
He promised a government grant to those who were earning less than R3 500 a month.
The disaster comes just days before an international Disaster Management Summit gets under way at Durban's Suncoast Casino on Thursday.
The two-day summit will bring together experts in disaster management, including delegates from countries that were hit by the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. The summit is aimed at helping the province design a comprehensive disaster management strategy.
The inclement weekend weather also took its toll on vehicles, with tens of thousands of rands having been quoted to repair hail-damaged vehicles by several companies in the Durban area. Rivesh Rajbans, workshop foreman at Pinetown-based panel beaters Autohail, said the company had done quotes for more than 200 cars from around the province.
"We've been working since Saturday and have had cars come in from Kloof, Pinetown, Durban, KwaDukuza, Hluhluwe, Pietermaritzburg, Richards Bay, and other places," he said.
Rowan Rose, of Durban Panelbeaters, said the company had done quotes for almost 30 vehicles. "There have been a lot of cars with hail damage. We had five cars where the quote for the damage was more than R40 000. Our average quote has been about R20 000," he said.
Durban Central Panelbeaters reported damage to a Mercedes-Benz in excess of R100 000.
The Manager at Durban South Panelbeaters, Malcolm Moothal, said they had done about six quotes, but were expecting many more.
Mutual and Federal Regional Manager Peter Foley said they had received many claims, but that there had been "nothing catastrophic".
"Between Pinetown and Durban, we have had about 160 claims for hail damage to motor vehicles and about 20 claims for damage to homes. There has not been anything catastrophic (but) it is a lot more than we get on an average day," he said.
Meanwhile, the cold weather is set to persist over the Drakensberg today and tomorrow, with the South African Weather Service's website issuing a warning for snow and very cold conditions.
Forecasts for Durban indicate mild temperatures in the low-to-mid-20s throughout the week, warming up towards the weekend. Pietermaritzburg can expect similar conditions with temperatures in the mid-teens and low 20s.