KZN pleads with Treasury to assist with funds to fix key infrastructure

KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala on Friday expressed his frustration about the pace at which insurance companies were processing flood claims, saying it was hampering much needed repair work in the eThekwini metro.

“There is an issue in eThekwini with insured properties or assets. It takes time for insurers to come to the party to assist. The council has made a request that Treasury gives it an advance and gets that money later when insurers pay,” said Zikalala.

The premier was speaking during an ad hoc committee meeting on flood disaster relief and recovery including the National Council of Provinces and the National Assembly.

Zikalala said he would like to engage with the financial institutions to expedite the process “because we believe through National Treasury we can have a process that can be shorter to ensure we meet the expectations”.

He said: “The huge damage in eThekwini will not be able to be fixed if we take this approach of not supporting assets that are not insured because insurance companies, by their nature want to conduct their own processes.

“We are not saying fund that allocation but you can make an advance to eThekwini and then when that money is available, we will give it back. Even if it goes from the insurers straight to Treasury, what we need is to urgently fix the damage.”

A Treasury presentation made during the sitting showed expenditure was relatively low.

“Applications for national disaster management funding were submitted to the national disaster management centre and department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs on May 3. Funding applications included costs of replacement of infrastructure as it was and costs of building back better, with upgraded infrastructure to meet needs. The cost of building back better is R7.8bn.”

MPs were told most water services in KwaZulu-Natal have been restored but  sanitation service restoration was lagging behind.

“The May storms set back restoration efforts, particularly for waste water works. The first round of disaster funding applications were approved and there is an urgent need to expedite further rounds of disaster funding.”

The report noted a number of donations had been made to assist the province. 

In the Eastern Cape, an estimated R21,984,200 is needed to repair damaged infrastructure. The presentation noted floods have not been as severe as in KwaZulu-Natal, but though Port St John’s was severely affected.

“Amathole district recently reported its damages were assessed and verified by the technical team. Interim water supply through tankers is underway with some pumps already fixed and running across the affected areas.”

In the North West, an estimated R3m is required.

Zikalala urged finance minister Enoch Godongwana to consider releasing a statement clarifying the R1bn commitment made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April.

The Sunday Times reported there was no R1bn made “immediately” available to KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape to recover from the flood disasters. The two provinces were asked to reprioritise their budgets by using money  that would be refunded when National Treasury approved their applications to access disaster grants.

Treasury said the provinces were required to redirect money already in their budgets to relief and rebuilding. They would then be expected to apply to access disaster funds through the disaster management centre and national department of human settlements.

On the issue the expenditure was low in KwaZulu-Natal, Zikalala said: “I would like to contest that because if you talk about expenditure, let’s take humanitarian support. People are not having enough meals. As a province we have taken a view that whatever we get should go to assist and should go to the department of social development. We have said treasury in the province must look for funds to support those families who are in community shelters.

“We are also working against time to get land and build temporary residential units for people so to suggest expenditure is behind and low, I wouldn’t agree.”

Regarding donor funds, Zikalala csaid: “We have received about R3.5m. The first was R100 000, which a private donor specified must go to health services.

“The second donation was R3m from the gaming and betting industry, who wanted the money to go to education. Another R500,000 came from the Qatar government for humanitarian support.

“We said that R500,000 must go to social development to support them.”

Zikalala said a bank had pledged R3.2m but this has not been received.

“We can account. They are saying there are funds that have been donated but they need to give us a breakdown of where the money came from and for what project because we have not received those funds. We can only account for what has been donated to us as government, and all of those donors have paid directly into the provincial account.”

He said a number of donations that have been pledged have not been given to the government.

“We can’t be held accountable for that,” he said. 

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