Cogta minister vows to strictly monitor R1.44bn in disaster relief funds allocated to municipalities

The flooded Palala tributary in the Waterberg district, Limpopo, in February 2025. (Photo: Jessica Babich)

1 Apr 2025

With R1.44bn paid into municipalities’ bank accounts, government will follow the money to ensure it’s used on disaster relief projects, not salaries.

Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Velenkosini Hlabisa on Monday, 31 March 2025, announced the allocation of R1.44-billion in disaster response and recovery grants to address recent natural disasters across South Africa. However, he warned that municipalities would be closely monitored to prevent misuse of the funds.

“We are doing all it takes to follow the money allocated to municipalities… We will see to it that no diversion is allowed, and consequence management will follow any mismanagement.”

The funds, disbursed through the National Disaster Management Centre, are aimed at restoring critical infrastructure, including roads, schools, clinics, and agricultural support for communities devastated by floods, fires, and other disasters in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Free State, North West and Gauteng.

flood jukskei park Johannesburg Roads Agency workers clean up the Jukskei Park bridge in Johannesburg after heavy rains on 6 March 2025. (Photo: OJ Koloti / Gallo Images)

The announcement comes in the wake of severe weather events – from wildfires to extreme and heavy rainfall – that have devastated several provinces since January this year, claiming 40 lives and causing extensive damage to infrastructure, homes and livelihoods, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.

Read more: SA in the throes of a sodden summer, marked by widespread flooding and infrastructure damage

The National Disaster Management Centre has classified these events as national disasters under the Disaster Management Act. But Hlabiso highlighted that while these issues had been classified as such, they had not been declared a National State of Disaster.

The funding is being distributed across municipalities and provincial departments to support immediate relief efforts and reconstruction projects.

Preventing misuse

Hlabisa pointed out examples of mismanagement, such as municipalities using money allocated for a bridge to pay salaries, or scaling down projects – spending funds intended for a 3km road on only 1km. He also criticised delays in appointing implementing agents, which leaves money sitting idle in municipal accounts.

“It is not meant to stay in the account of the municipality; it is meant for a project that was affected by disaster,” he said.

To address these issues, strict conditions have been attached to the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant.

Municipalities must comply with regulatory frameworks, including the Division of Revenue Act, Municipal Financial Management Act and Disaster Management Act.

They are required to submit monthly and quarterly progress reports using approved templates. Non-compliance will result in corrective measures, such as reclaiming unused funds or deducting misused amounts from future allocations.

“A municipality that uses this money for something else – what happens? In their next allocation, this money will be recovered from their equitable share,” said Cogta Director-General Mbulelo Tshangana.

Hlabisa stressed the importance of public oversight, urging communities to monitor how disaster funds were spent.

flood waterberg The flooded Palala tributary in the Waterberg district, Limpopo, in February 2025. (Photo: Jessica Babich)

“We are making this information public so communities can hold their municipalities accountable,” he said. “People need to ask: What is this R15-million for? Where is the business plan?”

Tshangana echoed this sentiment, saying “if it is not utilised, there is no other option except to recall the money because it did not do what it was intended to do for our people”.

The National Disaster Management Centre is conducting assessments of recent disasters to determine additional funding needs for the 2025/26 financial year. Final evaluations are expected by April 2025.

Tshangana said that further allocations would be made in May from the new financial year’s budget, emphasising ongoing accountability measures.

Despite financial commitments, Hlabisa acknowledged that weaknesses in local government structures often led to inefficiencies in disaster response. Delays in appointing service providers, bureaucratic hurdles and poor planning had historically slowed recovery efforts. He emphasised that addressing these structural issues was just as important as allocating funds.

The need to prepare ahead of time: climate adaptation

While it’s too soon to attribute the extreme weather events this year to climate change, what has been proven is that anthropogenic climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected that extreme daily precipitation events will intensify by about 7% for each 1°C of global warming.

For example, the World Weather Attribution group concluded that human-induced climate change doubled the likelihood of extreme rainfall events such as the one that hit KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) in 2022. This means that an event of this magnitude is expected to occur about once every 20 years, whereas it would have occurred once every 40 years without global warming

Recognising the growing threat of natural hazards, Hlabisa emphasised the importance of climate adaptation.

“As we face the growing challenges posed by natural hazards such as floods, heatwaves, veld fires and droughts, it is crucial to recognise the substantial threats these events pose to our communities, infrastructure and economy,” he said.

The minister acknowledged that while climate change had exacerbated some risks, unsustainable practices and inadequate planning also contributed.

“Acknowledging these factors allows us to pursue proactive measures and solutions that can lessen future risks.”

Professor Francois Engelbrecht, a climatologist at Wits University, has frequently underscored the importance of both short- and long-term disaster responses. In the immediate aftermath of extreme weather events — such as heavy rainfall, flooding and cyclones – he emphasises that governments must collaborate with communities before disasters strike to build trust and ensure effective evacuations.

However, he argues that the real solution lies in climate adaptation.

“If we are not going to change the safety of our most vulnerable communities — if people continue to live right on the riverbanks and along the steep slopes where the mudslides occur — the hard reality is that hundreds of thousands more people are going to die in the next 10 years,” Engelbrecht warns.

Hlabisa confirmed that government was actively working with traditional leaders, metro authorities, businesses and civil society to develop long-term relocation plans for communities in disaster-prone areas, particularly in cities such as Durban.

“We must mobilise people who are living in floodplains to be relocated — not temporarily to community halls, because there is no good life in a community hall. It takes children away from schools, it makes people far from work,” said Hlabisa.

He acknowledged that securing land for safe, permanent housing was a challenge, but stressed that the government was committed to working with stakeholders to find solutions.

“Now, human settlements can be in a space of providing dignified shelter, but we need land to do that,” he explained.

“That’s why we want to mobilise and engage everyone, so that people who own land should be willing to release their land, and at whatever cost they might put forth, so that we can acquire land and ensure that dignified shelter is provided.”

Hlabisa also made it clear that relocating people from flood-prone areas would require strict enforcement to prevent reoccupation. “First, we must save human lives from floodplains and relocate them to safe areas. But we cannot allow anyone to return, because if people go back to floodplains, then we will never solve the problem,” he said.

“The government will need to be firm on this. One day, you will wake up with a disaster, and hundreds of people will be affected because they are living in areas that are not meant for human occupation.”

This relocation effort, he noted, would be revisited in May, once the Budget had been finalised, noting that R11-billion had originally been requested to address the damage caused from late 2023 to mid-2024.

“We are coming back in May, once the Budget is approved – and it must be approved – because we cannot afford to allow people to remain in these conditions simply because politics overshadows the reality on the ground.” DM

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Preventing misuse

The need to prepare ahead of time: climate adaptation