“As part of the reprioritisation [of the USDG], we received a portion of about R240m two weeks ago. We will be using that to respond to some disaster-related matters while we’re waiting for support from national [government], but the impact is that we've had to defer some of the projects, so we will still need to replace that money.”
He said the city had received close to R1bn in insurance claims and would need about R3bn from the Treasury to continue to service infrastructure.
“When you look at our roads, we are servicing about 10,000km, sanitation is close to 8,000km ... and water pipeline is about 12,600. That's the extent of the challenges we are dealing with, so we do need that support from [national government],” he said.
Mnguni confirmed calculations had been submitted, but said the city was still awaiting its share of the disaster relief fund.
“The last feedback with National Treasury was a communication that came through from the National Disaster Management Centre. They indicated that within the next few weeks we would be getting about R185m."
He added that the city’s insurance assessors were still trying to ascertain the extent of the damage and how much was due to claimants.
“Almost 400 sites were affected by the storms and each site had various assets, like buildings, vehicles and furniture. The feedback I received last week was that they had verified close to 50% of those assets and we estimate that by December we would have at least an indication as to how much would be payable to the city.”
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda reiterated that the floods in the city – April's were the third since 2017 – consistently negatively impacted the budget.
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R4bn needed to rebuild eThekwini after April floods, says CFO
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
The eThekwini municipality says it needs about R4bn to repair infrastructure damaged in April's floods.
Municipal CFO Sandile Mnguni briefed the parliamentary ad hoc committee on flood disaster relief and recovery in Durban on Tuesday. He said the immediate assessment by council after the floods was that the damage amounted to R5.7bn. That, however, included about R1.6bn related to human settlements.
“Our damages for the city now are bout R3.9bn. Most of it relates to road infrastructure, which amounted to about R2.1bn. Water and sanitation is about R1.1bn and about R700m relates to electricity, infrastructure and other assets,” said Mnguni.
He confirmed the city would redirect R2.1bn from the 2022/23 budget to restore some critical infrastructure. The money will come mainly from a loan and grants.
“In terms of the reprioritisation, out of the R3.9bn there is R2.1bn that is in the budget. There is a R500m loan that we will be taking to deal with the critical and urgent [infrastructure]. Some of those assets relate to electricity because we’re of the view that we are losing money as the city, so we have to restore it urgently, especially in the south.
“Internal funding was also made available and we’ve reprioritised some of our grants. The informal settlements and urban settlements development grants (USDG) were reprioritised.
Red tape, poor co-ordination, tedious procedures behind state’s sluggish flood response
“As part of the reprioritisation [of the USDG], we received a portion of about R240m two weeks ago. We will be using that to respond to some disaster-related matters while we’re waiting for support from national [government], but the impact is that we've had to defer some of the projects, so we will still need to replace that money.”
He said the city had received close to R1bn in insurance claims and would need about R3bn from the Treasury to continue to service infrastructure.
“When you look at our roads, we are servicing about 10,000km, sanitation is close to 8,000km ... and water pipeline is about 12,600. That's the extent of the challenges we are dealing with, so we do need that support from [national government],” he said.
Mnguni confirmed calculations had been submitted, but said the city was still awaiting its share of the disaster relief fund.
“The last feedback with National Treasury was a communication that came through from the National Disaster Management Centre. They indicated that within the next few weeks we would be getting about R185m."
He added that the city’s insurance assessors were still trying to ascertain the extent of the damage and how much was due to claimants.
“Almost 400 sites were affected by the storms and each site had various assets, like buildings, vehicles and furniture. The feedback I received last week was that they had verified close to 50% of those assets and we estimate that by December we would have at least an indication as to how much would be payable to the city.”
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda reiterated that the floods in the city – April's were the third since 2017 – consistently negatively impacted the budget.
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