DURBAN,
South Africa — South Africa’s government Tuesday
sought to reassure a worried public about efforts to help the east coast, where
millions remained without water more than a week after deadly storms pounded
the region.
اضافة اعلان
Following up a declaration of a national state of
disaster, President Cyril Ramaphosa dispatched top ministers to the city of
Durban and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, where at least 448 people have now died
and 40,000 are homeless.
“These floods are the worst floods that we have ever seen in living
memory,” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the minister in charge of disaster management,
told a news conference.
More than 600 schools were damaged by the floods,
with 101 rendered inaccessible.
“Literally, the only thing you can find is teachers
and pupils. Material is completely gone,” said Education Minister Angie
Motshekga after inspecting damage at some schools in Durban, estimating the
damage at 442 million rand ($30 million).
Health Minister Joe Phaahla visited the Prince
Mshiyeni regional hospital, where for the past week, patients have used buckets
to bathe and flush toilets.
“The main challenge there is water,” he told AFP,
adding cisterns were bing repaired to store water delivered by tankers.
Normally the hospital sees 2,000 patients a day.
About 100 residents of the devastated Umlazi
neighborhood waited outside the hospital, fearful that their medical records
had been lost in the storm.
Several hospitals reported that files had been lost
or damaged, raising fears among patients with chronic conditions.
Pravin Gordhan, the minister for public enterprises,
said the Durban shipping terminal, the second-largest container port in Africa,
was fully functional on Tuesday.
During the height of the floods last week,
containers were tossed about like building blocks.
The 8,000 to 9,000 shipping containers that had been
backlogged because of a damaged access road, would be cleared within a week, he
said.
Key roads connecting the port to the rest of the
country sustained heavy damage, creating bottlenecks for around 13,000 truckers
who daily have to get goods to and from the port, serving a vast stretch of
Africa as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Helicopters flew low across the city, searching for
dozens of people still missing. Five more bodies were recovered Tuesday.
Along roadsides, residents dragged mattresses and
other possessions into a welcome day of sunshine, trying to dry out whatever
possessions they could salvage.
Some 10,000 troops were being deployed to assist,
both with air support for search efforts and relief operations, but also with
engineering, plumbing and electrical support to try to get basic services
running.
But for residents like Uber-driver Olona Ngcobo, 26,
from Umlazi township, who lost his house, the army help is coming too late.
“I don’t understand why they waited this long to
send the army. ... What’s the use now? To find dead bodies?” said a despondent
Ngcobo.
Many in South African are wary of the government
efforts, recalling the recent experience of emergency funds that were looted or
misspent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Experience has clearly shown the vulnerability of
our procurement systems to corruption in times of crisis, if one considers the
rampant corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Karam Singh, head of the
non-profit Corruption Watch.
“There must be absolute transparency and full
disclosure of how these funds are being distributed.” he added.
Seeking to preempt such concerns, Ramaphosa
announced a new oversight body comprising the auditor-general, business and
religious leaders, as well as professional groups of engineers and accountants.
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