Chairperson, today's topic touches the feelings and emotions of our people who are today homeless, more especially those who stay in rural areas, whose traditional mud rondavel houses have collapsed, not to mention the loss of life they have suffered.
From December to March, the Eastern Cape has experienced numerous heavy storms. They have caused extensive damage to infrastructure, but more particularly to the roads and bridges. This has caused great hardship for the communities since it has resulted in disruptions to essential services and commerce, not to mention disruptions to schools and clinics.
The Eastern Cape Department of Roads and Public Works has had no financial resources to do the necessary permanent repairs. In most cases, outstanding flood damage is estimated at R200 million.
Five Eastern Cape regions were affected at varying levels, but the media did not even capture this, particularly the electronic media, owing to the rural nature of our province, let alone the fact that our tornadoes and floods were not named, maybe because they took the African names and they were not recorded as Gloria or Susan, but as iNtomb ayiphiki. [Laughter.]
The main road linking Tsolo and Maclear has been washed away. This has not only created a long detour, but also has security implications. It is not possible for the department to even temporarily repair it with its current budgetary allocation, bearing in mind that there has been a huge backlog in this province. It is therefore essential that extra budgetary funding be acquired so that basic cases can be addressed. The disaster management team should also visit the Eastern Cape for surveying. It was only this morning that communities from Matatiele and Mount Fletcher were subjected to staying with their deceased relatives because the roads and the bridges had been washed away. Some had to cancel the burials which were scheduled for this weekend. [Applause.]