The National Treasury has confirmed the allocation of R516 million in the first phase funding in response to the April flood disaster that caused significant damage to infrastructure in various provinces

The National Treasury has confirmed that R516 million will be allocated in the first phase of funding in response to the disastrous April floods that severely damaged the infrastructure in several regions.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a National State of Tragedy on April 18 in response to the disaster, which primarily hit KwaZulu-Natal. The floods claimed the lives of around 400 people, destroyed 4000 homes, and uprooted about 9000 people.

Government action in support of the provinces hit by the floods was spurred by the disaster’s state.

Enoch Godongwana, the minister of finance, reaffirmed that an R1 billion disaster relief fund was available for emergency assistance throughout two phases of the tragedy.

The National Treasury stated that the first phase was emergency relief and the second phase was the stage of recovery and repair.

The Division of Revenue Act, 2022 (2022 DoRA), which awarded little over R1 billion in 2022–2023, said: “These catastrophe assistance payments are available from four Schedule 7 awards.

The Provincial Disaster Response Grant (PDRG) and Municipal Disaster Response Grant (MDRG) will each receive R145 million and R371 million in 2022–2023, respectively, as well as R326 million and R175 million for the Provincial Emergency Housing Grant (PEHG) and Municipal Emergency Housing Grant (MEHG), respectively.

The Department added that current monies might also be reallocated to address the damage through the advancement and reprioritization of provincial and local conditional grants in addition to these disaster relief funds.

It said that provinces and municipalities were required to submit funding requests through the appropriate Provincial Disaster Management Center in order to be considered for the provincial and municipal disaster response awards (PDMC).

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), which evaluates the applications and advises the National Treasury on the amount of cash to be granted, receives these applications from [the PDMC].

“The national Department of Human Settlements administers the provincial and local housing emergency funds, and, following evaluation, also recommends to the National Treasury the amount of funding to be distributed.”

The National Treasury is dedicated to processing these applications quickly in order to ensure the efficient disbursement of these monies, the Department of the Treasury stated, as soon as any additional applications are received from the NDMC and/or national Department of Human Settlements.

The budget process must be used to take longer-term infrastructure restoration and recovery expenses into account that cannot be covered by emergency relief grants and budget reprioritization.

The Adjustment Budget will handle these as unavoidable and unforeseen expenses, or as part of the 2023 MTEF process, according to the statement.