Deputy President David Mabuza answering questions during the oral question and answer session in the National Council of Provinces. Picture: Siphephile Sibanyoni/ African News Agency (ANA).
Cape Town - Deputy President David Mabuza apologised on Thursday to the affected people of KwaZulu-Natal for the failures experienced in the government’s response to the flood-disaster that took place in April.
Mabuza confirmed that the process has not been smooth as they had anticipated it to be although there was a multi-disciplinary system.
“There were still problems with planning, execution and keeping track of the projects.
“We established this later during an audit of progress we have made within the period we had set ourselves to complete this process,” he said.
Mabuza was responding during the oral question session in the National Council of Provinces.
ANC chief whip Seiso Mohai asked whether Mabuza’s office considered trouble-shooting and removing the red tape that has stalled the release of such funds to ensure that the people of KwaZulu-Natal start rebuilding and rehabilitating.
Mohai said there were numerous concerns that were raised by the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality regarding the delays in processing the flood-relief funds.
In his response, Mabuza said they observed weaknesses were the prevalence of old challenges that resulted in serious delays in meeting their delivery deadlines as initially determined.
“These challenges included poor co-ordination, integration and sharing of capacity and resources between all three spheres of government,” he said, adding that there was also poor project management, poor contracting, unnecessary delays caused by red tape and tedious processes when responding to the disaster.
Mabuza said the challenges resulted in failure to monitor and track progress and the quality of project delivery, leaving affected communities and people highly frustrated while forced to live for prolonged periods in unconducive conditions.
“We want to take this opportunity to apologise to all affected communities, families and individual for having subjected them to this situation for a long time.”
However, Mabuza said they would strengthen monitoring mechanisms, identify implementation capacity gaps and work with the provinces to close those gaps while creating synergies across the entire value chain to ensure that people are assisted as promptly as possible.
“We are recommitting to remedying the situation by ensuring that we urgently put an end to the misery currently faced by communities, families and individuals affected by the recent flood disaster in eThekwini and the other municipalities,” he said.
Mabuza told delegates to the NCOP that the cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday identified a number of challenges facing the response on KwaZulu-Natal.
“We have taken upon ourselves to improve these matters and gaps we identified.
“The multi-disciplinary response team should be strengthened and our capacity to disaster response be strengthened for further disasters.”
Mabuza said they were not happy that there were people still in community halls and shelters.
“We apologise for that delay,” he said.
However, Mabuza noted that here were certain monies that have been released though they were not adequate.
“The rate of delivery on the ground is not satisfactory. In certain sectors money is not utilised all of it.”
He also said the provincial Department of Education managed to spend R18 million to procure mobile classrooms.
“Affected children are now in mobile classrooms.
“All that should happen is to rebuild schools,” Mabuza said.
He remained confident that KwaZulu-Natal would realise some progress in the near future.
Cape Times
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