DURBAN - KWAZULU-NATAL MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sipho Hlomuka told the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery this week that the province will work towards tracking any backlogs in rebuilding, but that National Treasury must release funds.
The committee held an oversight visit in KwaDukuza on Monday after a two-day roadshow.
Hlomuka appealed to committee chairpersons Cedric Frolick and Jomo Nyambi to assist and ensure that national Treasury releases all funds allocated to KZN to rebuild after the floods.
“I have met countless times with National Treasury and Cogta to request release of the funds, and I know they will ask us to reprioritise. However, we have reached our limit. We can’t reprioritise our budget any further; there are projects that can’t change because they are long-term and have already started,” said Hlomuka.
He said in uMgungundlovu alone R52 million was required to repair severely damaged schools.
Frolick shared Hlomuka’s sentiments and said KZN was an economic hub and had to be restored urgently.
“We will need a response from National Treasury urgently. The flood damage is a serious issue and I believe we should be putting in the same effort we put when we were preparing for the 2010 Fifa World Cup, to restore the province,” he said.
The DA said as much as the province was waiting for funds from National Treasury, R350 million was still sitting in the province’s contingency reserves and the premier, Sihle Zikalala, should release it.
“With an estimated R17 billion required to address rebuilding and social relief, every cent matters,” said Francois Rodgers, DA KZN spokesperson on finance.
“Yet there has been a lengthy to and fro between national and provincial Treasury as to whether R1 billion is coming to KZN. Our province cannot wait another day.
“Many of those who survived have lost their homes and are holed up in community halls. Those who were fortunate enough not to lose everything, are struggling with the after-effects of two major floods in just six weeks,” Rodgers said.
Approached for comment on the contingency reserves, provincial government spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said the provincial government was using all available funds and resources to bring relief to the people of KZN, and no funds were being withheld.
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