KZN floods: No more funds for disaster victims, Department confirms

The Department of Human Settlements have confirmed that they are unable to allocate any further funds to the disaster-ravaged KZN province, with red-tape and budget log-jams leaving thousands of displaced residents in the lurch. 

Over 14 000 homes were severely damaged in early April as torrential rain caused mass flooding across large parts of the province, and displaced residents are currently occupying halls and other make-shift shelters awaiting further support from government. 

Department ‘won’t allocate additional funds disaster relief’

The worrying news was delivered by the Department of Human Settlements in the Portfolio Committee to Parliament on Wednesday, with officials saying that other than existing annual grants, no funds will be allocated to KZN for housing related flood relief.

During the meeting, officials said that due to the National Department awaiting its audited financial statements, additional relief funds from unspent Entity budgets are also unavailable, as previously indicated by the Minister. These statements will only be available in September.

According to Emma Louise Powell, the DA’s Shadow Minister of Human Settlements the Department has instead asked that the the KZN provincial government and the eThekweni Municipality reprioritise existing budget allocations from the Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) and the Informal Settlements Upgrading Program Grant (ISUPG).

“eThekweni Municipality has declined to do so, citing that all money has already been allocated to existing projects and there are no remaining grant funds that can be utilised for disaster relief efforts,” she said in a statement. 

‘Deplorable’ conditions for KZN flood victims  

Adding insult to injury, Powell said that the eThekweni Municipality is “furthermore unable to indicate to the Department how they intend to finance repairs to the Umlazi Bridge (amongst other infrastructure) – as this would usually be financed using the Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) that is provided by the Housing Department”. 

With these limitations in place, the only additional funding that may be available is held by the Emergency Housing Relief Grant, but the National Department of Human Settlements is yet to make a decision on how much of this will be allocated to KZN. 

“This R500m grant source must cover all housing-related disasters across the country for the upcoming financial year, and there are limitations posed on its proportional disbursement by Treasury. Almost four weeks on from the floods, it is unclear if, and how much of this will be sent to KwaZulu-Natal,” said Powell. 

“Whilst thousands of informal settlement residents remain living in halls, and with the Department of Social Development having now ended their feeding program, it is not clear how much longer this failed government can expect displaced residents to remain patient,” she said, adding that her recent visits to KZN relief shelters had revealed “deplorable conditions”.