R143M ALLOCATED TO HELP DURBAN’S INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS REPAIR FLOOD DAMAGED HOMES

Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says R143 million has been allocated to help residents in Durban’s informal settlements repair their damaged homes.

Eyewitness News & Gladys Mutele & Xolile Bhengu | 

KWAZULU-NATAL - Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi says R143 million has been allocated to help residents in Durban’s informal settlements repair their damaged homes.

She said families affected by the deadly floods would be given vouchers to a maximum of R8,000.

Over 13,000 homes have been affected and more than 3,000 have been damaged by the floods in KwaZulu-Natal leaving hundreds of people displaced and 395 people dead.

Mop-up operations in the province have intensified and provincial Cooperative Governance MEC Sipho Hlomuka confirmed that some people were being moved to town halls and schools.

Kubayi said there were funds available at local government level which national government could tap into to address the current disaster.

CALLS FOR PRAYERS

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called for prayers for flood-stricken people in South Africa during a Good Friday church speech as the death toll from the disaster reached nearly 400.

"Let us pray for our people in KwaZulu-Natal so that they receive the healing that is required... so that they can get on with their lives," he told El-Shaddai Tabernacle church congregants in the eastern town of Ermelo.

He said the floods were "a catastrophe of enormous proportions that we have not seen before in our country, that so many people can die".

Ramaphosa said he had visited a family that lost 10 members, including children.

"That was one of the saddest moments I experienced, even as president," he said during a service broadcast live on local television networks.

He said the pain and suffering those relatives of victims experienced "will last for years because some of them just saw their family members just being swept away by the water as they watched unable to rescue them, reaching out with their hands to hold them but the power of the water just took them away".

The floods have affected some 41,000 people.