The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery says it is satisfied with the clarification of how the R1 billion made available for flood disaster in KwaZulu Natal is being dispersed.
This comes after the Ad Hoc Joint Committee held a meeting on Friday with Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana.
The meeting included the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, Deputy Ministers of Water and Sanitation, Dikeledi Magadzi, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Human Settlements, the Premiers of KwaZulu Natal and North West, as well as the MECs of COGTA and Human Settlements from the affected provinces.
“National Treasury clarified that the money is available. However, there is a challenge with the application process for that money. The committee was also pleased with the clarification that the main challenge for National Treasury is the lack of co-ordination between the various spheres of government when applying for the funding,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee added that it had been briefed by National Treasury about the grants it had allocated so far in response to the flood disaster.
“National Treasury informed the committee that it has approved R87.4 million provincial and municipal disaster response grants to six municipalities in KZN. It has also approved R325.8 million in provincial emergency housing grant in KZN and R16.6 million in municipal emergency housing grant for Alfred Nzo Municipality to fund the provision of temporary shelters for 258 destitute households,” the committee said.
A total of R8.3 million had already been transferred to Alfred Nzo Municipality, which was required to spend at least 80 per cent of this amount before the second tranche could be disbursed, the committee said.
The committee was also informed that approved reprioritisation of conditional grants for immediate response included R65 million for water services infrastructure for hiring of water tankers in eThekwini, Ugu and iLembe district municipalities.
The committee said R41.3 million had also been approved for the reprioritisation of the municipal infrastructure grant in KZN.
“Other initiatives to provide immediate relief funding include R189 million for an Informal Settlements Upgrading Partnership Grant to KZN, R105.7 million in Human Settlements Development conditional grant payments to the Eastern Cape and R733 million in Human Settlements Development conditional grant payments to KZN,” the committee said.
It also asked all three spheres of government to provide metrics of how the government is responding to the disaster to mitigate a siloed approach to the work, which has contributed to the confusion regarding funding.
The committee said it planned to finalise its preliminary report to assist with the challenges it had noted after visiting and engaging with stakeholders in the affected provinces. The provinces will then have to produce progress reports to ascertain their response to the disaster before the Auditor-General presents reports on the special audit, which will form part of the committee’s final report. – SAnews.gov.za
