After days of relentless rain and catastrophic flooding in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, weather conditions are beginning to ease as the SA Weather Service downgrades its highest warning level. As recovery efforts ramp up under a national disaster declaration, parts of the Kruger National Park have cautiously reopened, even as the full extent of the damage continues to emerge. After a week of heavy rain, driven by a low-pressure system that began in Mozambique but quickly progressed into the neighbouring South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, the unrelenting rain, which saw up to 400mm fall in a couple of days, is finally beginning to show some level of improvement.
On Monday, 19 January, the South African Weather Service downgraded the Orange Level warning from 10 ( the highest warning a country can issue) to 5, predicting disruptive rain in Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The National Weather Service said the lowveld of Limpopo, as well as the eastern parts of the province, would probably experience significant impacts as a result of persistent overnight rainfall — 30mm to 60 mm of rain was expected to fall over the course of the day. The government has declared the severe flooding a national disaster.
It has claimed the lives of 37 people and caused more than R4-billion in infrastructure damage. Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Velenkosini Hlabisa welcomed the declaration on Monday, following its initiation by Dr Elias Sithole, the head of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC). Under the Disaster Management Act, the declaration of a national disaster allows the government to mobilise resources to support relief and recovery efforts.
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“Accordingly, all organs of State across the three spheres of government are required to strengthen support to disaster management structures, implement contingency measures, submit progress reports to the NDMC and ensure a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach to prevention, mitigation, relief and rehabilitation,” Hlabisa said. President Cyril Ramaphosa was again on the ground on Monday, this time visiting flood-affected areas in Mpumalanga. While he walked in flood-stricken areas in the Nkomazi Local Municipality, where he assessed the extent of the damage, the President called on the affected provinces’ leaders to avail themselves to communities in distress.
“It’s important that, as leaders, we should be able to go and meet our people and see exactly what has befallen them. And that’s the important thing, because when people are in need, they want to have a sense that those that they have elected in key positions are there with them,” Ramaphosa said.
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