AG slams KZN for failing food victims, spending only 4% of grant money

Of the R5.8bn received in grants, loans and reprioritised budgets to respond to the April 2022 floods, KwaZulu-Natal had only spent R251m — 4% — by May 31 this year.

This was revealed by auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke on Tuesday during a briefing to the ad hoc joint committee on flood disaster relief recovery, as part of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) audit report on flood relief funds.

Thousands of KZN residents were left homeless in the floods, which left more than 400 people dead and massive infrastructure collapse.

The problems relate to poor planning, poor project management and poor co-ordination 

—  Tsakani Maluleke, auditor-general

Maluleke lambasted municipal officials for poor planning, project management and co-ordination, which robbed citizens of basic services such as water.

The report, which focused on repairs to damaged water, sanitation and road infrastructure, as well as supply of building materials, found a glaring absence of oversight and deviation or noncompliance in procurement protocols.

eThekwini was the main culprit, with Maluleke saying disaster management plans were not updated timeously and management did not exercise necessary oversight over quality of work by contractors. 

Consequently, building materials purchased were left exposed and became damaged.

 “We also had instances where roads were damaged. The contractor should have been required to put up signage that would warn residents about the dangers of driving on a specific road. That didn’t happen and the wellbeing and safety of people were compromised,” said Maluleke.

She added that there was a lack of co-ordination between spheres of government in the province and metro. 

Some beneficiaries were also left without houses, with roads that were inaccessible and insufficient water supply because of weak management practices. 

The AG said the threshold funding for disaster management was not in place and the municipality failed to prepare a budget for repairs and maintenance every year. 

To restore operations at the Tongaat wastewater treatment works, which services more than 300,000 people, R36.7m was allocated. Work was meant to run from July 13 to October 26, with residents relying on water tankers in the interim.

Maluleke told the committee that a visit to the site on November 11 revealed it was not operating as it should. 

“The problems relate to poor planning, poor project management and poor co-ordination. The pace of implementing the project had an impact and people had to rely on tankers for water supply. There was a delay in providing water to communities. There was also a lack of co-ordination in repairing the damaged infrastructure.”

On the provision of building materials, the AG found basic controls regarding supply were inadequate. The beneficiary list used to source funding contained inaccuracies and included unapproved beneficiaries. 

“Some beneficiaries were deceased and some should not have been on the list because they were not deserving. They were even beneficiaries who had invalid ID numbers.”

In October, the AG visited the city and found communities were still not receiving enough clean water.

She cited an example in an informal settlement in Pinetown where residents had not received water for two months and relied on a nearby river that looked contaminated. 

In Tongaat’s Kwasani informal settlement, Maluleka said she found one 5,000-litre JoJo tank for 1,000 residents. It was filled once a week. 

This didn’t meet the Water Service Act requirements of providing a minimum of 25 litres per person per day. 

Maluleke said this was due to poor monitoring and oversight of services offered by contractors. 

“Communities are not receiving enough drinking water, the needs assessments are not being done comprehensively and there’s still a lack of co-ordination between government departments to validate payments. There are still inadequate processes to manage water-tanking service providers and the rates being paid to a number of [them] are quite exorbitant.”

eThekwini spokesperson Princess Nkabane did not respond to questions regarding the briefing.