Western Cape storm affects over 150 000 people: Simmers

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The Western Cape Minister of Infrastructure Tertius Simmers says although he welcomes the swift response of the national government to declare the province a disaster area, he is concerned over the allocation of funds.

This follows the declaration of a state of disaster in the Western Cape by the National Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa. This means that all resources must be pooled to respond quickly to last week’s devastating storms.

Update on infrastructural damage following inclement weather: Tertuis Simmers

Assessments are ongoing to determine the overall extent of the damage caused by the devastating storms. The extreme weather conditions have caused damage to infrastructure and left thousands of people displaced.

Those who live in informal settlements are the worst affected.

Simmers says more than 70 roads are currently closed across the province’s road network. “We do have technical teams that are doing the assessments. That is why we could get the daily reports as we are to quantify the impact of the disaster, that is what the teams now have to do. Obviously, this provincial disaster declaration which came out last week does assist when we need certain reports at certain stages. But remember it’s more than one department that’s been affected. There’s also national infrastructure that’s been affected in our province.”

Simmers hopes Treasury will realise the impact of the financial strain that the disasters have on the province’s budget.

“Remember last year we had two disasters, one of which was declared a disaster and we received no funding. We actually had to reprioritise within our current envelope to actually address those disaster-affected areas. We do need additional funding from them to assist us to ensure that it does not affect our normal service delivery programme as the Department of Infrastructure but also our sister departments as well.”

The severity of the damage caused by the storm has prompted the national government to swiftly declare the province a disaster area. While lauding the decision, Simmers expressed concern over the allocation of funds.

“Last year, for instance, we got the emergency declaration or disaster declaration almost ten months later. Now it took nine days because remember the storm on the 3rd. By the 12th we saw COGTA also pronounce on the emergency declaration. So it’s nine days. We’ve seen the improvement on the time of declaring the disaster, but now will the funding also follow the same accelerated pace through to our province.”

According to the department, 241 affected people have been sheltered in three BnBs in Kuilsriver, Eerster Rivier, Philippi and one hotel in the Cape Town CBD.