KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) coastal municipalities will get help from the National Treasury in footing the bill to clean up in the wake of the freak surf that battered the province’s coastline, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Tuesday.
However, Mufamadi refused to be drawn on how much aid would be forthcoming.
Waves measuring as high as 8m pounded the coastline in the early hours of March 19, causing extensive damage and claiming the life of one person.
Speaking after he was flown along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline on Tuesday morning to view the extensive damage, Mufamadi said he will be awaiting ”consolidated reports” from the province’s disaster-management authorities before he makes a request to the National Treasury for additional funds to pay for the clean up and repairs to infrastructure.
”We need to take stock of infrastructure damage as well as that of private properties,” he said, adding that it is ”not wise” to provide any figures before these reports have been compiled.
He said that during his brief tour of the affected areas he saw that certain revenue-generating infrastructure for municipalities had been damaged and that the livelihoods of those selling crafts to tourists had also been affected.
Asked about concerns that much of the damage had been caused to properties built too close to the high-tide water mark, Mufamadi said the Department of Environmental Affairs is using the disaster -management control centres as ”a listening post” to rectify such issues.
Shortly before speaking to the media, Mufamadi met mayors of the affected municipalities. Details of that meeting were not available to the media.
Late on Monday the eThekwini municipality released a statement that said an initial assessment of the cost of repairs to Durban’s infrastructure was in the region of R85-million.
City manager Michael Sutcliffe said: ”Some of the cost for the repairs will be claimable from the council’s general insurance fund, but this will only be established once the assessment has been completed.”
Some of the Durban central beaches have been reopened and city officials are scrambling to get the majority open by the Easter holidays — traditionally a boom time for the city’s hospitality industry.
Shortly after the stormy surf struck, KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele said he believed the damage to be in excess of R500-million. — Sapa