Gift of the Givers
The Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape has activated a Joint Operations Centre to coordinate disaster relief operations following heavy flooding in Komani on Wednesday.
The JOC will also serve the centre to provide support to flood victims.
Gift of the Givers Eastern Cape coordinator, Corene Conradie, says Gift of the Givers has committed to providing humanitarian support, including providing mattresses and blankets for displaced families.
CHDM said around 1000 people, including about 123 children and 24 infants, were currently being housed at Gali Thembani Special School, with numbers expected to rise as the rain continues.
Conradie says the Departments of Social Development and Human Settlements will continue with assessments to determine the essentials required for all categories of the affected community including temporary shelters.
Meanwhile, the flash floods have reportedly taken out generators at both the town’s hospitals, placing patients’ lives at risk.
DA MPL, Jane Cowley, says one generator at the Frontier Hospital, has malfunctioned, while the generator servicing the maternity unit at the privately owned Life Queenstown has also been taken offline due to the flooding.
She said she had written to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, requesting that Komani be exempted from load shedding for 72 hours or until the generators at both hospitals can be repaired and services normalised.
