Ramaphosa: eThekwini bore brunt of KZN flooding
President Cyril Ramaphosa says while they're still assessing the economic impact of the deadly floods in KZN, the eThekwini metro appears to have borne the brunt of the disaster.
It also put the brakes on operations at one of the largest and busiest shipping terminals on the continent.
"Access to the port has been disrupted by extensive damaged to the Bayhead Road, which links to the Durban Port Operations to the rest of the country. This route handles 13,000 heavy vehicles per day,” Ramaphosa said in a national address on Monday evening.
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"The damage caused to businesses in the area have not been fully quantified, but assessments so far suggest that the eThekwini Metro accounts for nearly half of all the reported damage."
Many schools, health facilities, police stations and courthouses were badly damaged.
Infrastructure South Africa and roads agency Sanral have been roped in to provide technical support for the reconstruction of roads, bridges and schools.
"To date, around 1,300 road repair projects have been identified by the agencies involved. Progress has been made in restoring operations at the Port of Durban, opening alternative routes for trucks to access the port terminals and clean up debris in the harbour,” the president said.
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Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster to speed up recovery and reconstruction efforts.