DESPITE R342-million being made available to KZN to deal with storm damage suffered throughout the province, most of the money remains unspent.
Now the Democratic Alliance is calling on KwaZulu-Natal Human Settlements MEC, Peggy Nkonyeni to please explain.
Martin Meyer, DA KZN spokesperson on Human Settlements, said the money, allocated during 2017 and again in early 2019, was specifically allocated to fix storm damaged houses in the province.
The finding forms part of a Disaster Report presented to KZN’s Human Settlements Portfolio Committee late last month.
It also comes as numerous residents living in informal settlements and RDP houses remain homeless after heavy rains hit the province recently.
“The DA is extremely alarmed by the situation. As the province now reviews the cost of damage resulting from bad weather during the last few weeks, it is shocking to discover that people left homeless by storms in 2017 have still not been assisted,” said Meyer.
According to the same report, eThekwini Municipality and the Ugu District Municipality appear to be the main culprits, with both municipalities giving various excuses, including claims of difficulties in appointing contractors.
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“In 2018, R46 227m was allocated for repair and reconstruction of houses in eThekwini while a further R693 million was made available to the Metro to deal with various storm disasters, to be spread out over three years. However, given that the R46.2m for 2018\2019 has not yet been utilised, the province cannot make the next instalment of R247 million available. This funding is supposed to be used for the construction of 1 403 houses,” said Meyer.
He said following the more recent storms in the province during December 2018 and January 2019 the national government handed over R68.9 million for the construction of some 1 027 temporary units across KZN.
This was aimed at the worst affected districts which included Ugu, Harry Gwala, uMgungundlovu, uThukela, Amajuba, uMzinjathi, Zululand, King Cetshawyo, Ilembe and uMkhanyakude. To date, work has only begun on 28 temporary houses.
“The DA wants MEC Nkonyeni to urgently intervene in this matter. To begin with, the Mayors and City Managers of these municipalities must be held to account and must answer for the failure to spend this emergency funding,” said Meyer.
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