Cape Town — The Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) government announced it will intervene and implement measures to assist residents whose homes were destroyed in the recent wildfires in the province.
According to the KZN Transport and Human Settlements MEC, Siboniso Duma, the department intervened quickly to address the tragic situation and Duma said a team has been assigned to find the number of houses destroyed by the wildfires, The Citizen reported.
“We have received sketchy information about houses that have been destroyed in eShowe, Nkandla, UMtshezi, Utretch, and Umtubatuba,” the reort quoted Duma as saying.
This comes after strong winds swept through the area and the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) placed disaster management teams on high alert after severe weather warnings from the South African Weather Service (SAWS).
According to EWN, KZN Cogta spokesperson, Senzelwe Mzila, said the extent of the damage was unclear.
“The full extent of the damage is unclear at this time and disaster management teams are on the ground assessing the full extent, residents are urged to be cautious as inclement weather conditions are expected in the province during this week,” Mzila said.
COGTA MEC Rev. Thulasizwe Buthelezi Commends Disaster Response Teams for Heroic Efforts in Battling
Runaway Fires pic.twitter.com/Io2aDgqGwQ— KZNCOGTA (@kzncogta) July 9, 2024
The KZN Transport and Human Settlements MEC spokesperson, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said it has announced several accelerated interventions to assist affected residents, SABC News reported.
He added that Duma said the department will work alongside the national Department of Human Settlements and other departments to speed up interventions for the affected families.
“There are quite a number of interventions that will be speeded up, for instance, the emergency housing unit within the Department of Human Settlement nationally. We will actually be working with the province to ensure that there are emergency interventions that are speeded up. There is also an indication that there are alternative houses using the latest technology that must be brought into the affected communities,” Sibiya said.
Additionally, the department has taken steps to educate communities on fire management.
“We are bringing in more communities, such as the KZN water protection association. Also going to various communities to train more communities on how to manage these fires. We know there are fires that would ordinarily come out of the natural reserves, we’ve got fires that are in areas such as the commercial plantations. And we are saying to communities, they must not start fires without having to access the fire danger index and they must not leave fires unattended,” Sibiya added.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Unsplash
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Matthew Petersen
