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A man crosses a flooded bridge, caused by heavy rains.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Thami Ntuli says the ongoing rains have caused devastation in the province, with at least three lives lost as a result of the inclement weather.
A 54-year-old woman died in Pinetown when her car was washed off a bridge. In Vikimithi in the Umlalazi Local Municipality, a lightning strike resulted in the death of a 10-year-old girl. And the body of a 21-year-old woman has been recovered from a river in Molweni.
Ntuli is in Inanda, north of Durban, visiting families that have lost their homes as a result of the disruptive rains.
The Premier says he wanted to offer support to the affected families.
“Ours is to assess the extent of the damage, and also offer immediate support. I think the devastation is not only to Inanda, and the other areas of eThekwini. We are hopeful that when we engage those who are affected here in Inanda, because I’ve heard that they lost everything—but we’ll engage them. Apart from the fact that we’ve brought some support to them, and then we find ways of expediting support—in terms of them ensuring that they’ve been assured that they get shelter.”
A state of disaster has been declared in the province. This is necessary to mobilise support measures for affected communities
“The cost of the damage in the city just because of these last few floods is above a billion rand. We really hope that the release of the new funds will help us so that we can recover and restore our infrastructure so that when floods happen again we don’t get more impact,” says eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba.
