KZN Floods | Over 4 000 homes destroyed by floods, govt pledges for R1bn to alleviate floods impact

Destruction of homes in KwaZulu-Natal has raised fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis, as more than 4 000 homes were completely destroyed by heavy flooding past weekend.

The devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal posed by extreme weather and climate change has left 4 000 homes in disarray, and the province has been declared a provincial disaster by government.

Following this crisis, over 341 people have lost their lives due to destruction of property, while others were washed away by the floods.

The Department of Human Settlements said that the ‘human settlements’ grants will be disbursed to alleviate the impact of the disaster.

“The payments will be processed next week and allow for R1 billion to flow to KZN,” said the department.

“This has allowed that the human settlements grants mentioned above be reprioritised to alleviate the impact of the disaster.

To put this into effect, a revised cash flow was submitted to National Treasury on April 14 and positive response has been received. The payments will be processed next week.

This will allow an amount of approximately R1bn to flow to the province from the national department of human settlements,” addressed the national Housing department in a statement.

While addressing the media on Friday, Minister of Human Settlements Mammoloko Kubayi said almost 4,000 homes have been completely destroyed while over 8,000 homes have been partially destroyed in KZN.

The minister shared that the figures are not conclusive as assessments in affected areas are ongoing.

“For Human Settlements, we are sitting at almost 4 000 that has been quantified to have been totally destroyed homes and 8 000 partially destroyed,” she addressed.

“And we are saying this cautiously as this is not a conclusive figure because assessments continue and there will be areas where we have not been able to access to do the assessment of the damages to the homes,” she added.