Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has detailed the funding of the KwaZulu-Natal floods recovery effort by the national government.
Dube-Ncube said that in the interest of transparency and accountability, she took the opportunity to provide an account to the provincial legislature for the funding of the government’s response to the disaster that accompanied the floods of April 2022. It left at least 455 people dead, with 4 700 displaced.
The premier was speaking during the fifth session of the sixth legislature on Thursday morning, May 25.
Speaking on funds allocated thus far, Dube-Ncube said that having made the necessary applications as the province, the National Treasury approved, among others, the reallocation of R42 887 000 from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant of the 2021/2022 financial year.
It also approved the payment for the Human Settlements Development Grant and the Informal Settlement Upgrading Grant for KwaZulu-Natal at R733m and R189m respectively.
She said that the total amount approved for the Department of Transport was R2 910 890 588. Between June and September 2022, National Treasury, through the National Disaster Management Centre, transferred a total of R645 798 999.82 to deal with the emergency repairs to the critical municipal infrastructure.
In March 2023, National Treasury further allocated R2 964 448 601.02 from the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant – also known as the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Grant – to municipalities for the permanent repairs and rehabilitation of affected infrastructure, Dube-Ncube said.
The premier said that in total, following the president’s declaration, the National Treasury has committed and approved R7 486 025 189.02 from various sources to support KZN to deal with damages from the flooding.
“Against this total, at the end of March this year, orders to the value of R1 752 743 130 had been issued by the Department of Transport, Human Settlements R239 283 182, Public Works R23 309 243, Education R18 832 834, Social Development R7 054 636, Health R3 741 531, COGTA R2 317 459, Sport, Arts and Culture R2 191 046, Treasury R1 213 815, EDTEA R9 978m, and the Office of The Premier (OTP) R3 757 388m.
“This means the grand total of issued contracts in respect of the April 2022 floods disaster on March 31, 2023, stands at R2 054 454 243,” Dube-Ncube said.
“Out of this, I am pleased to note that the procurement spend on black people is R1 336 851 259, on black women R530 498 187, on Military Veterans R22 453 853, on youth R546 738 798. and on people with disabilities, the government has spent R 3 393 950.”
Dube-Ncube said that in addition to government funds, the province also received R10.320m in donor funds spent as follows:
- Vote 1 (OTP) – R2.670m;
- Vote 5 (Education) – R3m;
- Vote 7 (Health) – R100K
- Vote 8 (Human Settlements) – R2.275m;
- Vote 13 – (Social Development) – R2.275m.
“We also wish to state categorically that most municipal emergency repairs to critical damaged infrastructure which started in June 2022 have now been completed or are near completion.
“The exception is KwaDukuza Local Municipality and eThekwini Metro which are currently 35% and 56% respectively. Other municipalities are currently busy with the implementation of permanent repairs through Reconstruction and Rehabilitation grants which were received in mid-March 2023,” Dube-Ncube said.
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