POOR INFRASTRUCTURE EXACERBATES THE IMPACT OF FLOODS AND STRONG WINDS
The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) is saddened by the floods that have wrecked 1000 homes and displaced about 4000 people in Cape Town. The catastrophic impact of natural disasters on the lives of ordinary working-class people is exacerbated by the lack of housing and the poor state of infrastructure including drainage systems that are flood-resistant.
Given that there is a family of mid-latitude cyclones, this means the working-class residents in Western Cape must brace themselves for more suffering. Even though it is the cyclones that bring the bad weather, it is the government that create conditions for these cyclones to cause disasters.
It is disappointing that despite many mid-latitude cyclones causing havoc in the Cape provinces over decades, the government of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and its municipalities have failed to plan for these disasters. Sadly, the worst hit areas are the informal settlements with no drainage systems, tarred roads and houses, not the suburban areas for the rich and privileged. People in the informal settlement live in shacks that cannot be resistant to any type of bad weather, accounting for why about 1000 homes have been destroyed thus far.
Refusal to allocate residential land and to build housing for residents by municipalities and provincial governments is a crime of the worst kind, which is unfortunately glossed over with fiscal austerity rhetoric and slogans by the government. Perpetually, the city authorities have left people living in flood plains with no adequate infrastructure that is flood resistant.
In Asanda Village, Western Cape, it is reported that approximately 800 structures have been destroyed by the heavy rains and strong winds. These types of tragedies could be avoided or minimised with functional drainage systems, which are an essential part of effective service delivery.
The Presidential State of the Nation Address 2023 allocated R600 million to Infrastructure South Africa for project preparation, specifically targeting rural and under-resourced areas. However, these areas continue to be vulnerable to natural disasters due to underdeveloped and neglected drainage systems, sewage systems, and proper waterlines, leaving residents without homes and proper roads. This situation reflects negligence on the part of government leaders.
Municipalities in South Africa have faced infrastructure backlogs for more than two decades. In 2023, over R14 billion was allocated to municipalities to address these issues. However, in 2024, the people of KZN, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape found themselves deprived of their basic right to shelter due to water infrastructure failures. The government appears to disregard the improvement of the poor, opting to allocate large budgets to suburban and industrial areas while neglecting the townships.
SAFTU urges for the Department of Human Settlement, Public Works and local government bodies to build housing for the people and natural disaster-resistant infrastructure in all communities along the coastal areas. Mid-latitude cyclones in the Cape and the tropical cyclones in the East coasts will continue to wreak havoc and take lives if government does not take responsibility and urgent steps to make our communities natural disaster-proof.
