Durban — Holidaymakers will have to keep their fingers crossed in hopes of a bumper holiday season in Margate this year following disruptive rains there.
The Ugu District Municipality said it was working round the clock to be able to host tourists in the upcoming holiday season.
On Sunday, April 14, heavy rains destroyed infrastructure and claimed five lives in the areas of Margate under the Ugu District Municipality. Businesses and households were damaged.
Three people were confirmed to have died when the vehicle they were travelling in was washed away. One was struck by lightning, while another fell from the roof while trying to prevent flooding water that gushed in.
Ugu District Municipality spokesperson France Zama said assessments completed indicated major damages to road, sanitation and water infrastructure.
Zama estimated that the cost of fixing all the sanitation pump stations would be R100 million and around R150 million for infrastructure damage. Assessments were still being conducted.
He said the losses varied in the form of stock and actual structures and that they were primarily looking to assist informal traders first, as most formal traders were already insured, and that interventions for these would require assistance on a broader spectrum.
Zama said they envisaged the declaration of a natural disaster and were in the process of making an application to obtain the funds. He added that they were also working around the clock to be able to host tourists in the upcoming holiday season.
“There is a lot of traffic that comes to Margate and we are rushing against time so that we could be able to fix the key major infrastructure. At this point, I think our hope highly relies in terms of the approval of the classification of this occurrence as a disaster. If that could happen, we will be able to access the resources that are required, which will enable us to do the work. This incident happened in April, so we just have one month. We do not want to be unrealistic and say that within one month we would have resuscitated the whole infrastructure,” said Zama.
Surina Smuts, spokesperson for the Margate Ratepayers and Residents Association, said: “The community and some businesses have been affected quite badly. Now we have got to wait for disaster management to do their calculations and decide when they are going to start with the repairs,” she said.
Makhosi Msimango, chairperson of the KZN Women in Tourism and managing director for Ndzenga Tours, said that the floods had put a damper on the tourism and hospitality industry.
“KZN Women in Tourism is working closely with South Coast Tourism and has volunteers on the ground to ensure businesses, holiday destinations and tourism sites get back in business, especially with the impending holiday season in less than 10 weeks,” she said.
MEC for the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi said that March and April had become notorious for devastating disasters. She added that they had built disaster centres in two districts, Harry Gwala and Amajuba, and a new fire station at Inkosi Langalibalele.
Sithole-Moloi announced financial interventions of hundreds of millions from the National Disaster Management Centre to support municipalities to rebuild infrastructure.
“National Disaster Management Centre has approved a Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Municipal Grant of R253 million for 12 KZN municipalities to implement 129 projects. Most of these municipalities are first-time disaster management grant beneficiaries.”
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