Fears that R1 billion KZN disaster relief fund could be looted

KWAZULU-Natal provincial government departments have pledged that any resources or funds allocated to their coffers for disaster relief efforts will be used “prudently”.

This comes in the wake of a groundswell of dissenting voices expressing fears that the R1billion allocated by the national Human Settlements Department to flood-ravaged KZN could be looted.

The critics said they were wary that the injection of funds could lead to another “feeding frenzy” for unscrupulous government officials, connected business people and politicians. Some cynics even suggested that the R1bn would be better utilised if it were in the hands of NGO Gift of the Givers.

The DA, in particular, was outspoken about oversight of the allocated funds. Emma Louise Powell, DA human settlements spokesperson, lamented that Parliament had “yet again” refused calls from her party to conduct an oversight of disaster relief funding allocated for flood disaster relief.

“Whilst many other parliamentary committees are in session, or on the ground in KwaZulu-Natal, the portfolio committee for human settlements is yet again missing in action. This, in spite of the thousands of homes that were damaged or completely destroyed last week,” said Powell.

KZN human settlements spokesperson Mbulelo Baloyi said that while they had received support from the national office, they were building temporary residential units (TRUs) with their own funds. Baloyi said they had appointed contractors to build hundreds of TRUs in various locations in Durban and in the Ilembe and Ugu districts.

He said not a single cent of the R1bn had been spent yet because of the profiling and assessment processes that were still being conducted.

KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) spokesperson Senzelwe Mzila said extra oversight over the relief funds would be exercised by various chapter 9 institutions. He said Cogta would also hold municipalities accountable for the additional resources allocated to them.

In the wake of the devastating floods, the ANC in eThekwini region established “disaster nerve centres” to co-ordinate all disaster relief in the region. The party said all service delivery, including food, blankets, soup kitchen and water related to the disaster, would be handled via the nerve centre and no minister, MEC or municipal official would go to branches or wards without a directive from the nerve centre. This stance stirred growing concern that it could be a gateway for ANC members to loot disaster relief funds.

However, Musa Nciki, the ANC secretary in the eThekwini Region quashed those concerns.

“These nerve centres are an ANC programme and must not be aligned to governmental operations. When people talk about looting of funds, I’m not sure what funds and from where, because these centres are set up for communication, collecting information and organising assistance that goes straight to the needy,” Nciki explained.

He said they were not handling funds.

The Public Servants Association (PSA) called for the establishment of a multidisciplinary team, inclusive of government, business, civic organisations, and labour, to ensure due diligence in the spending and allocation of funds.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union general secretary Zola Saphetha said they had seen, during the Covid-19 pandemic, how public funds were looted with no consequences at all and the government must ensure that this did not happen again.

In response to the public endorsement, Imtiaaz Sooliman, the founder of the Gift of the Givers, said the work they have done over many years was built on “trust”.

“The endorsement shows we are delivering on our spiritual values of being honest and trustworthy. When people see these values in you, they are happy to give you their money,” he said.

But Sooliman said the worst thing was to take people’s money and betray their trust.

He believed that this would destroy not only his organisation but everyone else doing humanitarian work and those in desperate need of assistance would suffer the most.

He said they also received funding from big corporations, the SA Revenue Service, the Auditor-General and others. In its nearly 30 years of existence, Sooliman’s organisation has distributed R3.8bn in aid to 45 countries.