Pretoria - The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) will today continue with visits to areas in the Free State and Eastern Cape to access the impact of the recent floods.
The visits kicked off on Monday, with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs leading a team of government officials from various departments on a visit by the NDMC to assess the general impact caused by the recent floods in all affected provinces.
The visits, led by the NDMC, will cover all provinces in an effort to re-assess and verify the extent of the damages incurred particularly in the 33 municipalities declared as disaster areas, as well as other affected villages and towns.
Today, the team is expected to visit Thabo Mofutsanyana District in Free State and Amathole and Chris Hani District Municipalities in Eastern Cape.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the team will be visiting Ladysmith Local Municipality, Zululand District, Abaqulusi Municipality and Eshowe Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, the province reported to be most affected by the floods.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs noted that the Provincial Disaster Management Centres had in the past visited the areas, where they provided the required support and assessed the damages in the villages, cities and town affected. Various ministers have also paid visits to affected areas.
The floods, which were a result of constant heavy rains, resulted in over 50 deaths and 33 district municipalities being declared disaster areas, thousands of formal and informal houses damaged and farmers reeling from crop damage.
Speaking at the post-Cabinet briefing last week, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane, said the National Disaster Management Centre was monitoring the situation countrywide and providing regular reports to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) and other relevant institutions.
This in addition to the 24-hour operations room that has been reactivated to ensure government and the public are kept up-to-date about the floods.
The Cabinet also re-affirmed its commitment to providing assistance and support to all affected communities.
