South Africa: Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning welcomes relief funding for September floods

Western Cape welcomes R114million relief funding for September floods.

Anton Bredell, Western Cape MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning today confirmed that National Treasury has approved an amount of R114million to be released from the Municipal Disaster Response Grant to the Western Cape for damages suffered during the floods of September 2023. 

“We appreciate this allocation, and I want to thank all the role players who worked together to do damage assessments, drafted the disaster classification application, and worked together with our colleagues at the National Disaster Management Centre to satisfy all the regulatory requirements to qualify for this disaster relief. It is important and necessary funding to help us deal with the significant impact that the flood had on our province”.

MEC Bredell said that although the province applied for relief of more than R700million, we appreciate the R114million, and will now focus on spending the money wisely in the 5 municipalities identified for relief:

24 projects in Theewaterskloof
16 projects in Overstrand
11 projects in Stellenbosch
13 projects in Langeberg
6 projects in the City of Cape Town.

MEC Bredell said the intense flooding of 2023, and the current wildfire season which is stretching fire services across the province to the limit, is a wakeup call for all levels of government: “A new mindset is needed for infrastructure development and how we interact with nature. “We cannot repair roads and bridges to be washed away in the next flood. We must design and construct with the future in mind where we should anticipate more extreme weather events.”

The Department of Local Government, together with these municipalities are currently working on dedicated business plans for each of the identified repair projects.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Western Cape Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, South Africa.