Nhlanhla Mabaso28 May 2024 | 7:48

DA in KZN wants to bring infrastructure grants back to respond to natural disasters

The DA’s premier candidate in KwaZulu-Natal, Chris Pappas, said though natural disasters cannot be stopped, there should be prevention and recovery measures in place to effectively respond to them.

DA in KZN wants to bring infrastructure grants back to respond to natural disasters

FILE: A business damaged by severe flooding in eThekwini and KZN's south coast. Picture: Facebook/KZN COGTA

DURBAN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal said it wants to re-establish infrastructure grants for municipalities to respond to natural disasters.

Party premier candidate Chris Pappas said such disasters cannot be stopped, but there should be prevention and recovery measures.

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KwaZulu-Natal is no stranger to weather-related disasters like floods, severe rains and mudslides.

But these often leave a trail of disruption, with damages amounting to millions and at times billions of rands.

Speaking to Eyewitness News, Pappas said a DA-run government would cut some costs to prioritise the infrastructure grant.

“We want to bring that back. We are going to cut all the wasteful expenditure that currently exists in the system and bring back infrastructure grants for municipalities run by the province and not national for this intervention.”

He also added that under his government, municipalities would be well equipped with resources to maintain public infrastructure, like storm drainage systems.