IT'S exactly six months since Soweto experienced the worst widespread hailstorm, dubbed the "hailstorm from hell".
It damaged local infrastructure and residential properties.
On Tuesday, 20 June, Joburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda hosted the Gauteng government with the parliamentary delegation on an oversight committee visit on flood disaster relief and recovery at the Soweto Theatre.
The aim of the visit was to allow the committee to understand the extent to which the government has helped Gauteng towards flood disaster relief and establish the amount of damage caused by the floods.
“In December 2022, the City of Joburg experienced the second disaster. The first one occurred in 2016 in November. We have found ourselves having to respond to what we have never known,” Gwamanda said.
According to the report presented by the executive director of the housing department, Patrick Phophi, infrastructure was heavily affected, prompting them to react and find ways to deal with such matters.
“We had to make sure that within the week ending 16 December, we assess and find out exactly which areas were affected. And we picked up that in terms of disaster management centre set up by the city, we had to provide shelter and provide formal and informal structures to people who were affected by the disasters,” said Phophi.
The audience was allowed to ask questions about the plans for the communities living in wetlands and flooding hotspots.
In response to the questions, city manager Floyd Brink said they would appoint City Power to do some work on behalf of the province.
Phophi said they would need to do a permanent process by bringing a permanent solution to the affected residents.
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“Nancefield is a wetland. We need to develop permanent structures and move those families away. The other issue is that in Protea South, there are people living in flooded areas. We have built infrastructure in Roodepoort farm not far from where they reside.
“We have 1 200 sites electrified. The only challenge we have is that the neighbouring communities are saying we are not going to bring those people there,” he said.
After the address, the officials visited Meadowlands, Nancefield Hostel, Kliptown, as well as Protea.
The first stop was Meadowlands zone 10, where 400 houses were affected by flooding.
