During an urgent meeting on Wednesday, the Mpumalanga Government Executive Council estimated that repairing and restoring infrastructure damaged by recent heavy rainfall would exceed R3.5b. According toMpumalanga News, this represents an additional R1.5b on top of the R2b announced late last week, when Premier Mandla Ndlovu and Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Velenkosi Hlabisa visited Msholozi. The council, led by Ndlovu, emphasised the need to strengthen disaster management teams to provide immediate support, including evacuations, temporary shelter and humanitarian relief to affected families during disasters.
Ndlovu indicated the need for the province to review its Climate Change Strategy and ensure implementation to improve both preventative and reactive measures, while strengthening the co-ordination of government and stakeholder actions during disasters. The council also urged implementing agents and service providers to exercise the highest level of accountability and ensure value for money in all interventions supporting government’s efforts to rebuild infrastructure. During the meeting, a report on the state of disaster in Mpumalanga was outlined.
Mpumalanga has recorded a total of 20 fatalities, comprising 18 drownings, one lightning-related death and one fatality resulting from a structural wall collapse. All bodies have been recovered. Ehlanzeni District Municipality experienced the greatest impact, with a total of 1 808 houses affected by the disaster.
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After a brief postponement of a briefing scheduled for Wednesday, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Willie Aucamp shared the latest updates on the Kruger Relief Fund in parliament during a media briefing. According toLowvelder, he welcomed the National Disaster Management Centre’s classification of the region as a natural disaster zone, noting that damage to critical infrastructure in the Kruger National Park alone was so extensive that SANParks estimates the cost could run into hundreds of millions of rand, although no lives were lost. “It is also important to note that the Kruger National Park is increasingly a ‘natural disaster nodal point’ due to the confluence of hydrological networks, tourism infrastructure density and transboundary climatic influence,” Aucamp added.
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