#DurbanStorm: DA welcomes KZN cabinet’s decision to declare Metro a disaster area

16 October 2017

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet’s decision to declare the Durban Metro a disaster area following last weeks’ devastating storm.

The move will allow the province to access additional funding from national government in order to assist the many people affected by the extreme weather conditions.

The step is indicative of the seriousness of the storm, which saw eleven people die and caused extensive damage in and around the Metro.

It is also indicative of the fact that the province’s CoGTA Department’s disaster management budget is hopelessly lacking after being cut by some 50% in order to accommodate the remuneration of Izinduna in the province.

The DA has written to KZN’s CoGTA portfolio committee chairperson to request that MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube and her Department report back on KZN CoGTA’s current disaster management early warning systems. This after many residents were caught largely unaware of the impending danger.

An urgent and thorough investigation is required and the DA will insist that the MEC and her senior officials to be thoroughly interrogated. In particular, it must be established whether more could have been done before the storm reached landfall, ultimately preventing loss of life.

It is critical that steps are taken to ensure that what happened on Tuesday never happens again when the people of Durban were placed at risk as a result of government’s failure to appropriately warn them.

Issued by Hlanganani Gumbi, DA KZN Spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), 16 October 2017