VEREENIGING. – Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development, Lebogang Maile visited flood stricken areas in the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) on Tuesday.
The objective of the visit was to assess the damage caused by recent floods in the ELM.
Following a briefing session at Sedibeng District Municipality (SDM), Maile together with Mayor Lerato Maloka and government officials visited various areas in a plight to find relief for affected residents.
Maile announced that a total of 329 residents of ELM had been affected by floods.
“We know that there are 329 people affected by this unfortunate disaster.”
Maile stated that two families had refused to be evacuated while other families had been temporarily placed in alternative accommodation.
The other challenge that we face is that of people who had illegally occupied floodlines despite stern warnings are now left homeless.
Maile said this puts government in a tough position as they have to provide housing to those people instead of dealing with the backlog of people who followed procedure anr have been waiting for houses for years.
Maile said that a lot of ground work had already been done by the ELM in dealing with the disaster.
“Two people are still missing at this point and search operations to find them are still underway,” he said.
