Cape Town - Government has set aside a further R300 million towards flood relief programmes across the country, Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini announced on Friday.
This is in addition to the R800 million announced by President Jacob Zuma during the State of the Nation Address last week.
Heavy rains in many parts of South Africa over the past couple of weeks have resulted in increased flood-related damage to property, infrastructure and farming.
Speaking during a cluster media briefing in Parliament, Dlamini said government's latest assessment showed that more than 50 000 people had been adversely affected by the floods with humanitarian relief reaching about 20 000.
The Department of Public Works in collaboration with Defence Department have now embarked on a project to build bridges in flood-prone areas.
Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde said three bridges, at a cost of R3 million, had been built in the Eastern Cape with the help of the South African National Defence Force. Thirty more bridges will be built in the next few months in other provinces.
Mahlangu-Nkabinde said the biggest challenge in rural communities, especially during flooding, was immobility.
"The purpose of these bridges will be to address this challenge and a big focus of this will be to encourage ownership of this infrastructure by these communities to ensure maintenance is ongoing."
In terms of social security, Dlamini said South Africa has made progress towards the establishment of a comprehensive social assistance programme. Over 15 million people, more than 10 million of which are children, were receiving social grants to survive. Government is in the course of formulating a discussion paper aimed at engaging South Africans on further reforms of the country's social security system.
"The thrust of these reforms will be aimed at address a glaring defect in the system, namely the creation of statutory social insurance arrangement aimed at ensuring that income security is available during any break in employment," Dlamini added.
