THE troubled and cash-strapped ANC-run Maluti-A-Phofung local municipality in the Free State and its mayor Malekola Melato have come under fire for providing residents whose houses were damaged by storms plastics to cover their roofs.
The municipality announced last Thursday that Melato had visited the affected families two days after the storms.
“We came here to assess the impact of the storms and how we can help as the municipality. We have seen the devastation that the storms have caused in this Schoonplatz area where about eight houses were affected,” she said.
She also promised that her municipality and the Thabo Mofutsanyana District would compile comprehensive reports which would be acted on “soonest” and provide affected families with temporary relief.
“We are expecting more help from both government and non-governmental organisations that are tasked with disaster relief,” Melato added during her visit.
However, residents were shocked when the promised relief was in the form of plastic sheets.
Concerned residents demanded answers from Melato, asking what they were supposed to do with the plastic as they were not able to ensure they were able to withstand strong winds using nails and wires, which damaged easily.
To make matters worse, a warning of strong winds and rains had been issued for last weekend, which meant that the plastics would be of no assistance.
Maluti-A-Phofung spokesperson Thabo Kessah defended the decision to provide the plastics as standard procedure.
”The use of heavy duty salvage sheet is a standard procedure to save the situation immediately after such an unfortunate occurrence. It is basically to cover household contents in case it rains again.
"At this stage, corrugated iron sheets cannot be put on top of the damaged house as the walls could be unstable and the trusses (made of timber or steel) have definitely been damaged,” Kessah explained.
He told the Sunday Independent last week that this was a temporary solution as the magnitude of the damage is being assessed for a comprehensive report that has already been sent to the relevant authorities, and that the national department of human settlements was in the area earlier this week to assess the situation.
Storms and heavy rains hit several parts of the country, with four people reported to have died in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, 40 others treated at various hospitals, and more than 30 schools damaged including about a dozen high schools in the middle of the matric exams.
Mpumalanga premier Mandla Ndlovu directed government officials to ensure that matric exams are not interrupted by bad weather.
Delivering his medium-term budget policy statement on Thursday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that the government had spent another R2.1 billion in unforeseeable and unavoidable expenditure mainly for disaster relief compared to the budget speech in February this year.
He said climate-related disasters were intensifying, damaging infrastructure and disrupting life.
”The increasing frequency and intensity of climate disasters is costly, and we must proactively work to reduce their impact on the fiscus and on society,” Godongwana added.
He continued: “One aspect of disaster financing is response and rehabilitation, after an event occurs. A slow response to these emergencies results in communities having to wait lengthy periods before they are finally assisted.”
According to Godongwana, the National Treasury is undertaking a detailed analysis of the experience of local governments regarding their access to emergency financing and their ability to disburse it.
”This analysis will help us better understand their capacity to manage a multi-layered, disaster risk finance approach. It will look into the willingness of municipalities to independently manage their financial response to disasters, existing incentives to invest in readiness, and their ability to set aside sufficient funds for their response,” he said.