Disaster relief measures in the ravaged provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape accounted for the majority of the revised expenditure in this week’s mini-budget. Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana is pushing out another R6.1-billion to support rebuilding and humanitarian efforts. This brings the total amount allocated for disaster relief to R7.1-billion. 

Flash floods in the first quarter of this year, saw more than 440 lose their lives while thousands more were injured, millions of homes were lost and there was extensive damage to infrastructure with many businesses still struggling to get back to pre-April 2022 levels. Above-average rainfalls, which have largely been attributed to La Nina, resulted in widespread flooding, sinkholes and mudslides. At the time, KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala estimated the cost of repairing and rebuilding infrastructure alone at R12-billion. 

Soul Abraham, head of retail for Old Mutual Insure says of the R245-million worth of flood-related claims received by 14 April this year, an estimated R45-million was attributable to homeowner, motor and commercial policies, while more than R200-million is estimated to be for speciality cover, such as plants, factories, specialised equipment as well as shipping and maritime.

Abraham and other experts in the insurance industry have hailed the 2022 floods as the “biggest natural disaster to have happened to the insurance industry following the Knysna fires in 2017.” The total damage from the Knysna fires was R7-billion for the insurance industry.

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KZN receives the lion’s share of the disaster relief with an allocation of R4.5-billion, followed by R454-million to go towards Sanral for the repair and rebuilding of roads. The Eastern Cape has been allocated R375.5-million while the Western Cape receives R290-million and the North West will receive R111-million. 

Alluding to the expenditure in his medium-term budget policy statement, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said although it is difficult to ascribe a particular event to climate change, it is clear that South Africa needs to improve its resilience to extreme weather. 

“Poor infrastructure, urban sprawl and lack of proper planning were major contributors to the devastation in KZN. Many private dwellings are built with poor materials, and drainage systems in both rural and urban areas need urgent attention to ensure they can cope with extreme weather patterns,” he says. 

According to the 16th edition of the Global Risks Report 2021, published by the World Economic Forum, the top four risks that are systemic in nature, are extreme weather events, climate action failure, human environmental damage and infectious diseases. Extreme weather has been at the top of this list since 2017. BM/DM