EFF statement on the devasting floods in KZN
12 April 2022
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) mourns the lives and livelihoods lost and destroyed by the dreadful floods in Kwa-Zulu Natal. This comes after the concerning and heart breaking reports of children being swept away by floods, the elderly struggling to exist flooded homes, and our people struggling to travel due to the heavy rains.
It has now become a yearly reality, that as South Africa enters the winter period, the people of Kwa-Zulu Natal are subjected to a tragic but predictable natural disaster in the form of floods. As things stand, around 20-people are recorded dead, and countless are still missing as road accidents increase and people are swept away to their death.
While natural disasters cannot be controlled, the extent of the devastation they wreck on lives and livelihoods can be managed. It is one of the basic mandates of government to monitor weather services and the possible impact such can have on people. It is an undeniable fact that those in government ought to predict such disasters, as is the case in most capable societies, and then implement adequate evacuation measures in time.
Moreover, by this time, military personnel ought to have been deployed to assist the communities relocate to safety, as the South African Weather Services forecasted heavy rains . At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country witnessed the misuse of military personnel by the current government, and now as people drown to their deaths, there is no deployment of this unit of South Africa's security personnel to practically save lives. Kwa-Zulu Natal is now in the thick of a natural disaster whilst the military personnel remain in the barracks.