Issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Ministry of Transport
22 June 2000
The South African and International electronic and print media extensively covered the unusually heavy rainfalls that occurred during December and January. Most newsworthy was the extensive damage caused by flooding to our northern neighbour Mozambique. Mozambique suffered a flood disaster of mammoth proportions the effects of which will be felt for many generations.
Perhaps less newsworthy than the flood disaster in Mozambique was the extensive damage caused in the Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal. Pietermaritzburg recorded its wettest December ever. Pinetown recorded 480 mm during December of which 310 mm fell in one 24 hour period. These heavy rains caused extensive damage to the KwaZulu-Natal road network.
This resulted in the loss of many lives as well as the social hardships that are associated with being isolated.
The media gave particular attention to the multiple pile up caused by the sinkhole which developed on P400. The sinkhole on P400, the multiple vehicle pile up and the serious loss of life created dramatic media footage concerning the devastation caused by the unusually heavy rainfalls experienced. Perhaps less dramatic but no less worthy of media attention was the damage that resulted in isolation of hundreds of thousands of KwaZulu-Natal citizens who not only experienced unsafe road conditions but had their daily lives disrupted and had to endure enormous economic hardships.
Hundreds of thousands of people were cut off from clinics, hospitals, pension pay out points, schools, shops and from towns.
Public transport came to a standstill and communities in need experienced a dramatic worsening of their condition.
As MEC for Transport I instructed my Head of Department (then acting) Mr Kwazi Mbanjwa to reallocate budgets to immediately begin repairs to damaged parts of the road network that would address most pressing needs. I also conducted a tour of the flood damaged regions and my staff prepared an extensive report on all visible surface damage caused to our road network. This report was submitted to the National Cabinet and of course our own Provincial Parliament.
We realised then of course that the Government would not be in a position to finance the entire bill needed to reconstruct our damaged network. Floods had caused extensive social and economic distress and the funds needed to address flood related issues were much more extensive than the costs associated with repairing infrastructure. Our flood damage report therefore divided repair costs into four most urgent priorities.
Cabinet allocated R300 million to the National Emergency Reconstruction Committee. A Command Centre under the Chairperson Lindiwe Sisulu, Deputy Minister Home Affairs, was established with the instruction from President Mbeki to cut bureaucratic red tape and to make relief funds available as quickly as possible to restore verified damage and loss. The speed at which the Command Centre reached decisions is testimony to President Mbeki's style of working and his growing impatience with the way bureaucratic delays can slow down the delivery of desperately needed services.
I am pleased to announce today that KwaZulu-Natal has been made an allocation of R76 million for flood relief, of which the Department of Transport has been allocated R27 230 000. This will allow us to address our top two lists of priority reconstruction projects. Mr Mbanjwa will outline the technical aspects of flood damage and how we in the Department of Transport intend using this conditional grant of R27 230 000.
However I would like to stress that the entire grant will be used to create work and entrepreneurial opportunities for those communities that had their lives so severely disrupted. These communities have suffered enormous losses and by using our flood relief funds in this way we hope to contribute to the social and economic reconstruction of their lives. Although we intend contracting emerging contractors to carry out repair work to our road infrastructure we fully appreciate the need for speed in repairing damage. I have therefore instructed Mr Mbanjwa that our own staff must work overtime to ensure efficiency levels are met.
National Government has made it clear that subsequent flood relief monies will depend on how current relief allocations are used. I am pleased therefore to inform you that the Department of Transport has done everything to ensure that work can begin immediately.
I would also like to stress that the conditional grant does not cover road infrastructure on our priority C and D assessment. While C and D priority repairs are obviously less urgent than those of A and B they are none the less still urgent. In KwaZulu-Natal 80 % of people and goods are transported on our road network. The Province's economic performance and the population's mobility needs depend on the condition of our Provincial road network. If the Province's road network fails our Provincial economy will collapse and this will undoubtedly impact negatively on national economic performance.
I cannot overstress the fact that the competitive advantage that we experience in KwaZulu-Natal in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors is dependent on the Provincial road network being in a good state of repair. I have argued for the last five and a half years that the National and Provincial allocation of budgets to the Department of Transport are hopelessly inadequate. The 1999/2000 floods were a timely reminder of this.
The flood relief funds that we have been allocated will begin to repair our most urgent priorities, which are of course clearly visible to everyone. However we do know that many kilometres of road were inundated for days and that although there is no visible deterioration to these parts of the network now, soaked pavements do reduce the life of roads. We therefore anticipate that more extensive road repairs, which are directly attributable to flooding, will soon manifest themselves. This will result in a further deterioration to the road network. We as the Department therefore anticipate that our routine road maintenance programmes, which are based on scientific pavement management systems, will be severely pressured and we ask the public and the media to appreciate this.
For further info, please contact Mlungisi Ndhlela,
PRO - KwaZulu-Natal Ministry of Transport at 082 5666 781