When allocating disaster response and recovery grants, Cogta Minister Hlabisa said that through the NDMC, Cogta has for the financial year 2024/25 months of February and March 2025 already disbursed an amount of R1.444 billion to ensure immediate relief and reconstruction in the most affected areas.

These funds will support a wide range of urgent interventions – from repairing damaged infrastructure and restoring basic services to supporting schools, clinics, and local economies.

Hlabisa broke down the R1.444bn disbursed to all municipalities and provincial sector departments as follows:

The Provincial Disaster Response Grant Allocation was transferred on February 6, 2025, to provincial departments to fix provincially damaged infrastructure. The provinces benefiting from this allocation included the Eastern Cape, KZN, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo, totaling R149 million.
The Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant was transferred on March 5, 2025, to the provinces of Limpopo, Eastern Cape, KZN and Mpumalanga for the repair of damaged infrastructure, totaling R231 million.
Another Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant was transferred on March 18, 2025, to the affected municipalities in the Free State, KZN, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, amounting to R669 million.
For the provincial unavoidable and unforeseeable (U&U) allocation in 2025, the National Disaster Management Centre, in collaboration with affected provinces, prepared a request to the National Treasury for additional funding. The Western Cape received an initial allocation of R947 million in February 2025, with other provinces being considered.
The department submitted the applications for the unavoidable and unforeseeable (U&U) allocation in 2024 for the following provinces: Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Western Cape, KZN and Eastern Cape provinces. The Western Cape has been allocated R947 million and other provinces are being considered. The allocated funds are to be used within 12 months.
Disaster Response Grant was allocated to the affected municipalities for the incidents which happened around December 2024 and January 2025, and the allocations were made on March 24, 2025 (KZN: R76 million, Mpumalanga: R11 million and Free State: R10 million)

“Currently, we are conducting an assessment of the recent classified national disaster. The exact costs are not yet determined, as evaluations are ongoing due to continuous rainfall affecting many regions. We anticipate that the assessment will be completed by the end of April 2025. Following this assessment and verification process, we will allocate funding to support the affected departments and municipalities in the 2025/26 financial year,” Hlabisa said.

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za