KwaZulu-Natal Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube says the death toll from yesterday’s storm stands at 10 – with 3 people killed outside of the eThekwini metro.
In oThongathi – which was badly hit by what locals call a tornado – teams are busy clearing roads of debris so that aid can reach people who have lost their homes.
Broken electricity poles, transformers and uprooted trees are blocking access to trucks of aid workers.
Formal dwellings have been damaged, all dwellings in the Mgwaveni informal settlement were damaged.
Mobile classrooms are being sent to damaged schools.
Dube-Ncube says warm meals are being provided to those affected.
“We are trying to source immediate accommodation for people. Last night, they used community halls. But we do not encourage people to use community halls. We would like use temporary residentials like we’ve done before. That’s what were trying to work with together with our mayor and eThekwini municipality. And once we know the correct numbers, we are going to move in that direction,” says Dude-Ncube.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Cape, Premier Oscar Mabuyane says he’s accepted that the province is a disaster prone province and is working on plans to mitigate disasters of this nature in the future.
He says they’re evacuating residents in low-lying areas to temporary accommodation as more rain is expected.
“Our problem is those who are on the river banks, low lying areas. We have been talking to those people, some difficult to convince. But now, I’m happy that everyone is happy to understand that this is not right, environmentally and scientifically they are not supposed to be where they are. So we are identifying those kinds of land parcels, then we’d be able to relocate them to get them in a very decent way, proper housing and all that,” says Mabuyane.
