President Cyril Ramaphosa has committed to hundreds of displaced families in Nelson Mandela Bay that adequate temporary housing will be provided for them within the next 30 days.
This comes as the National Department of Human Settlements working closely with the provincial and local departments have started to relocate the affected families from Friday, 7 June 2024, following the President’s oversight visit in Nelson Mandela Bay to assess government’s response to the national disaster.
As at 7 June 2024, the death toll due to the floods in NMB was at 10 with two people still missing.
Key stakeholders from all spheres of government visited various affected areas with the President in Kariega where Human Settlements Minister, Mmamaloko Kubayi said within 24 hours residents would be relocated to student accommodation facilities with buses secured from the provincial Department of Transport while temporary residential units are being built within 30 days.
The President said: “All we need to do as government is to help our people and we will do that. We have lost lives and we will assist in helping the affected families. We are grateful that we have our churches and other non-governmental organisations including the Gift of the Givers that continue to assist us during these times of distress. We are sincerely sorry to the affected communities, the damage has been quite extensive it runs into billions of rands.”
“When we assess the damage we assess that it might even be R5 to R6 Billion, it was an act of God. Bridges, factories, dams, roads and your houses have been damaged. These are the effects of climate change, we should not be having 230mm of rain in two hours we have never had so much rain in two hours where everything is washed away.”
The President was joined by Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane, NMBM Executive Mayor, Cllr Gary van Niekerk, Ministers and MECs from Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Human Settlements and Department of Transport among other stakeholders.
Minister Kubayi said: “From today we are moving the families into what we call temporary emergency accommodation where they will be placed until our temporary residential units are built. We are clearing sites and finding land so that they can be moved into those areas. As a long term solution we are looking at informal settlements that are at risk where people are staying in low lying areas and therefore looking at options of relocating them. We are appealing to communities that when we say they should not invade land, please do not invade land because these are communities that invade land that is not safe and we end up losing lives.”
A 63-year-old resident, Pieter Alexander who was visited by the President in his damaged home said he was hopeful following the visit that help was on the way as his family had lost everything in the disaster.
Mayor Van Niekerk will also be temporarily moving his office to be based at the Kariega Town Hall to ensure affected residents receive all the necessary support.
NMB Communications
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