EC premier calls for more resources after deadly floods

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has called for increased resources for the province’s disaster management team after floods that claimed 49 lives.

Speaking to the SABC, Mabuyane said the province lacked sufficient resources to respond to emergencies promptly.

“We need more resources deployed in this area because when such things happen, we are always found paralysed and not knowing what to do,” he said. “I hope now they realise what we have been saying: the province is too big to service it all from Gqeberha.”

Mabuyane said climate change was inevitable and the province needed to be better prepared. He said it had been reporting the issue with no luck.

“It’s a question we’ve been reporting every time we have experienced disasters, and we know we are a disaster-prone province.

“The area that is under-resourced is the eastern part of the province. We’ve been speaking to the SAPS about that. We’ve also talked about the aerial services intervention and helicopters. You can’t service the Eastern Cape with one helicopter that is in Gqeberha because when the weather is bad, that helicopter cannot move out of Gqeberha. You need a helicopter stationed in Mthatha, more resources, and a K9 unit stationed in Mthatha because this area covers the bigger part of the province.”

The floods affected livelihoods and destroyed businesses in the province, resulting in widespread destruction and loss of life.

“It’s a terrible situation and it happened at a wrong time at night when people were sleeping. I’ve never seen anything like this. The water was flowing almost 3m-4m high. It’s a bad situation, very terrible. We’ve never seen such floods in winter.

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