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The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery is encouraged to see flood relief and recovery efforts benefitting the rural communities of the Limpopo Province yesterday when it conducted three oversight visits to Blouberg, Polokwane and Molemole local municipalities to assess the reconstruction and rehabilitation of damaged roads, road culverts and the provision of stormwater channels.

The committee noted the progress made by Blouberg municipality in regravelling eroded roads and rehabilitating culverts and stormwater channels at Sefihlampsyana village which relies on that road for access to schools in the area.
 
The floods that occurred in 2022 and 2023 led to the previously eroded road in the municipality looking like a river that prevented learners and teachers from safely accessing the school. The committee has noted the work being done on the project which amounts to R4 million and heard that currently, the municipality has spent 64% of the allocated municipal grant relief amount.
 
The committee also visited Buite Clinic where work is done on lining a damaged earth channel at the cost of R4.5 million where the project manager informed it that the 2022/23 floods put the clinic at risk of destruction as the lack of lining of the channel allowed the water to destroy the area near the road preventing access to the health care centre. It also saw the contractor working on site and was informed that the project is at 36.4% expenditure from the allocated amount.
 
The last site visited by the committee was the rehabilitation of a damaged internal street in Morebeng at Molemole Municipality which received a grant allocation of R4.5 million. Furthermore, the committee was informed that the street will mainly be used to benefit the community to access recreational areas and 64% of the allocated money for the project has been spent to date.

The committee has noted the work done in all the areas and it has commended some projects for using internal municipal resources for implementation and only consulting on design work and specialised skills.
 
The committee also noted the utilisation of Expanded Public Works Program workers on these projects which offers skills development and work opportunities for the local people living in the affected areas. It has informed the municipalities that it will also rely on the real-time audit reports from the Office of the Auditor-General to ascertain value for money for the various projects.  
 
The committee today will visit sites in the Mopani District Municipality and Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality to assess the progress made.  

Issued by the Parliamentary communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Flood Disaster Relief and Recovery, Cedric Frolick