Durban — The mayor of eThekwini Mxolisi Kaunda said the National Treasury has approved the roll-over of the municipal disaster recovery grant of R1.6 billion.
He said the approved grant will fund Human Settlement projects, water and sanitation, coastal and stormwater, roads provision and stormwater maintenance, a Project Preparation Support Grant of R8.9 million and a Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant of R32.9 million.
Kaunda was speaking during the media briefing on Thursday morning at Blue Lagoon.
“In their response, they have indicated that they will approve the roll-over of the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant, the Project Preparation Support Grant and the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant (NDPG) for the Public Employment Programme. In total, the National Treasury granted the municipality an approval of R1.6 billion,” said Kaunda.
He said the first chunk of money was deposited to the City’s account in September immediately after the floods.
“Before the arrival of the funding, the City had already adjusted its budget so that it has R500 million to start fixing things since we could not wait for the national funding to come before we start repairs,” he said.
He said they started doing work and they are done with that money. “We’ve allocated it to projects which have been completed,” said Kaunda.
Moreover, he said the only money which was declared as savings was around R20 million and that money is on the basis that they are not the ones who approve projects which must be done through that funding. He said the national government is the one that approves them.
Kaunda said with regards to the informal settlement upgrade partnership grant, “we notified them that it was spent in full”.
He said the Treasury had also committed to reconsider the Public Transport Network Grant as there was still a dispute with the Department of Transport.
Kaunda added that this latest development, particularly in relation to the storm disaster grant, will speed up the repairs of roads and stormwater infrastructure which was severely damaged during the floods.
“I am sure you will agree with me that road infrastructure is critical in the tourism sector, because visitors cannot be able to access our tourism sites if our road infrastructure is in a poor state.”
He said: “The approval of the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant roll-over implies that we must revise our business plans to ensure that PEP continues up until December this year.”
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