By Akani Nkuna
Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane said preliminary assessments of recent flooding in Limpopo and Mpumalanga showed 3,750 homes had been damaged, warning that the toll could still rise as rain was forecast to continue into the weekend.
Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria on Wednesday, Simelane said 1942 houses had been affected in Limpopo and 1808 in Mpumalanga, and that alternative land had been identified in both provinces for temporary accommodation.
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“The department responded promptly by sending assessment teams to join both provinces from national to support their joint operation committees at the district level, [which helped us to arrive at the numbers]. But as you know, it is a moving target as it is still raining, and mud houses in particular are more affected.
“The weather conditions in Limpopo have made our work extremely difficult. Central to our work is providing the necessary intervention in the verification process and the prompt relocation of families and household. You cannot relocate people when water is not subsiding enough.”
Simelane said the disaster response was ongoing, with new reports of damage and fatalities still being recorded and verified.
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In Limpopo, the death toll had risen to 18, with six people still missing, she said.
She said government teams had been deployed to help households replace essential documents and to provide temporary accommodation, while accelerating assessments for permanent relocation where required.
Simelane said women and children would be prioritised for temporary housing, and that authorities intended to move displaced people from churches and community halls into accommodation.
She said 73 households in Bushbuckridge had already been identified as needing accommodation, along with five in Bloomberg, 13 in Makhado and 39 in Mbaula.
The victims were being moved from mass-care centres and contractors would be erecting temporary housing units, she said.
The minister also spoke about the upcoming Innovative Building Technologies (IBT) summit, which is planned for 3 to 4 February in Johannesburg.
She said that the summit would explore and fast track the development of “dignified houses”.
“The summit will examine how modular, prefabricated and rapid deployable housing systems can be used to respond to emergencies. This approach, we want it to support our commitment to ensuring that the disaster affected communities are not subjected to prolonged periods in unsafe and inadequate conditions,” said Simelane.
“It will enable us to directly engage with IBT solutions and assess the sustainability for large scale development, ensuring that we engage in solutions and assess the suitability of large scale development.”
She said that housing delivery needs to contribute to economic transformation and inclusive growth, with particular emphasis on local production, enterprise development, skills transfer and job creation.
DHS Director-General Alec Moemi said the department was using drone technology to map informal settlements, adding it was at a “70% conclusion phase”, and warned that some settlements had been erected in hazardous areas, including places with dangerous water-flow patterns.
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Moemi said government needed to identify and prepare suitable land so settlements could be properly planned and laid out — including roads and public open spaces — before services were rolled out.
He added that better planning would also improve safety and security, especially in areas where people have settled in hazard-prone zones, such as natural water-flow paths.
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