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The Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements received comprehensive briefings from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Western Cape provincial departments of Human Settlements on the state of readiness to deal with the disasters that tend to occur during the December/January holiday period.
 
The MECs in the various provincial departments assured the committee of the plans in place to deal with any disaster that may occur. A shortage of land to relocate disaster victims was highlighted as a challenge across all the provinces.
 
The Minister of Human Settlements, Ms Thembi Simelane, told the committee that problems around the availability of land are dealt with at national level by the relevant government departments to provide an intergovernmental measure for disaster relief. This includes the Department of Land Reform and Rural Development.
 
The committee heard that strong joint operations structures are in place in most provinces for rapid response to a disaster. The KZN Department of Human Settlements mentioned it has 50 trained firefighters on hand to fight fires in the province.
 
The committee urged the departments to ensure that the time for accommodation of disaster victims in temporary shelters is shortened. In reply, the KZN Human Settlements department said that such accommodation is only provided for three months.
 
The committee Chairperson, Mr Albert Seabi, welcomed the provinces’ presentations on their disaster preparedness and called on them to work collaboratively with all the relevant stakeholders. “Keep on improving planning, avoid reaction. Always be driven by an attitude of proactiveness,” said Mr Seabi.
 
Mr Seabi also called on the provincial departments to seek permanent solutions to the problem of accommodating disaster victims. “This culture of TRUs [temporary relief units] must end. We must think about permanent solutions,” he emphasised.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements, Albert Seabi