KZN govt wants flood-hit Margate declared a disaster
The KwaZulu-Natal government says it submitted a request to the national Department of Cooperative Governance to have the Margate floods be declared a disaster.
MEC for Economic Development Siboniso Duma says the declaration will help speed up the recovery processes and funding to rebuild the area.
The south coast town was hit by heavy rains on Sunday night that left a trail of destruction and killed five people.
Duma says it's clear climate change is affecting every sector of the economy.
He says Sunday's floods have reversed the gains made after the April 2022 floods.
"The Ray Nkonyeni Local municipality spent R20 million, and the provincial government added another R11 million years back to revive the Margate airport, that's also been flooded. We now have to start that process again to rebuild such infrastructure.
READ: Margate residents rebuild after devastating rains
"The roads in town have also been affected. We have to go back to rebuild them. But we have faith that the national government will help us once again to rebuild after these floods."
Meanwhile, DA premier candidate Chris Pappas says while the storms are a natural phenomenon, their impact is disastrous in the absence of proper infrastructure and related planning.
The sad story here is the number of people who might lose their jobs and the economy that has been negatively affected. In many cases these could have been avoided. I saw underneath a bridge in the CBD how over the years the municipality added electricity pipes and water pipes that has made the storm water system smaller."
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