The City has been devasted by the recent floods that caused severe damage to infrastructure, private properties, and resulted in the loss of life. We have commenced with mop-up operations and the rebuilding of eThekwini. I appeal to the public to desist from violent public protests and blockading roads as this prevents our employees from restoring basic services.

Our teams continue to work tirelessly to restore water and electricity supply and to repair road infrastructure. We understand the devastation the floods have caused, and we extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones. We also send our condolences to the families of employees killed while on duty.

As a caring City, we will continue to provide burial support to families who lost loved ones in the flood. Displaced families accommodated in community halls continue to receive food, clothes, and primary healthcare from the Municipality and non-governmental organisations. The leadership of the City recently had an opportunity to convene a meeting with the business sector. We updated them on the impact of the floods and outlined a roadmap that we must embark upon as social partners to rebuild our economy after this catastrophe.

EThekwini, and its businesses, was the worst affected municipality in the province. Despite the magnitude of the challenge lying ahead of us, we are pleased that we have been able to restore services in several areas in the City. Regarding water supply, there has been an improvement of 60 percent in the inner and outer west regions. The central and north regions have improved by 50 and 42 percent respectively.

We still have some challenges in the south due to the damage that occurred to the uMlazi Carnal Pipeline which affects water supply in many parts of the southern region. Our teams are currently onsite to lay a temporary pipeline which will be completed soon. Unfortunately, the heavy rains have also brought immense disruption to our electricity infrastructure. During this period, the City saw a remarkable increase in the volume of faults, recording roughly five times more than what we receive on a normal day. While we have been able to restore power at all our high voltage substations, work is continuing at the Bayhead, Mariannridge, Toyota, Mondi and Sapref power stations.

In Mariannridge, our teams are still assessing the extent of damage after the power station caught fire. At Toyota, we are expecting the process of cleaning the power station and testing will be completed quite soon. The process of replacing damaged cables at Mondi and Sapref is moving with speed. Once the procurement has been completed, we will be able to replace the cables within 14 days. We urge residents to refrain from connecting electricity illegally as this puts strain on infrastructure