Parliament’s joint oversight delegation visiting flood-damaged areas in Mpumalanga on Thursday warned that without sustained investment in building resilient infrastructure, such as stormwater drainage systems and effective flood-risk mitigation, many vulnerable communities in the Ehlanzeni district will continue to bear the brunt of severe weather events.
The Portfolio Committee and the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)’s visit forms part of Parliament’s oversight responsibility to monitor government’s response to the recent disasters and to assess recovery and mitigation plans in affected communities. The delegation visited flood-damaged areas in Shatale and Ward 12 (Sidlamakhosi) in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality.
In a settlement in Shatale, damage to an access road and bridge highlighted how inadequate stormwater systems and backlogs in infrastructure maintenance can exacerbate the impact of extreme weather events. The recent floods caused widespread damage to infrastructure and, in several areas, washed away roads, leaving some communities stranded temporarily. Shatale is one of the communities that were hit hardest.
The joint delegation was informed that severe erosion during heavy rains hampered access for the surrounding communities. Members heard that there are about 5 070 kilometres of road network in Bushbuckridge, and only about 1 070 kilometres are tarred. The rest are gravel roads, which means that erosion is a recurring problem across the municipality, particularly during periods of heavy rainfall. Members were advised that addressing these issues would require both immediate repair interventions and longer-term planning to reduce erosion and improve resilience.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on COGTA, Dr Zweli Mkhize, raised concerns about the underlying causes of the damage and stressed the need for more decisive and forward-looking interventions. He said officials’ explanation highlighted deeper structural issues that require urgent attention. “There is a deeper issue here,” he said. “What was visible on-site pointed to longstanding problems rather than a once-off incident. Somebody should have figured this out earlier,” he said.
Dr Mkhize questioned the sustainability of simply restoring the road in its current form and cautioned against short-term fixes that fail to address future risks. “If you are saying it is going to happen again in the next five or six years, then you must anticipate that now,” he said.
The Chairperson stressed that climate patterns and rainfall intensity are changing, and this now requires a shift in how infrastructure is designed and repaired. “You cannot plan the same way as before when things have changed. He stressed the importance of oversight and professional supervision in infrastructure projects. “Somebody must be able to oversee and supervise this properly,” he said. He warned that limited capacity cannot be used as a justification for recurring failures. “Your capacity must not limit the quality of what is created. That is the problem.”
The Chairperson of the Select Committee on COGTA, Mr Mxolisi Kaunda, also identified a critical planning error. “The problem is that this is not a stream, it is a river,” he said. “When it was planned, it was treated as a stream, but a river behaves differently.” He said this misclassification has implications for how structures should be designed to withstand future flood events.
Mr Kaunda called for stronger intergovernmental and technical partnerships to address this issue and urged local authorities to collaborate with relevant authorities to complement engineering capacity. “Work with the provincial Department of Transport and SANRAL to improve engineering capacity.” The Chairperson warned against relying on emergency funding as a substitute for proper design. “This is where the problem is,” he said. “You cannot keep building infrastructure that is not resilient and then expect disaster funds to fix it every time.”
At another site in Ward 12 (Sidlamakhosi), the delegation found water streaming down a street. Municipal officials told members that this was because of natural groundwater tables or subsoil conditions, but this was refuted when Dr Mkhize found that it was an unattended burst water pipe. He demanded accountability. The delegation expressed serious concern that a basic infrastructure failure had gone undetected for what appeared to be an extended period. The water meter also appeared new, which raised questions about monitoring water leaks and maintenance. The joint delegation raised concerns about whether the situation constituted a disaster or an infrastructure maintenance issue, which is a normal municipal responsibility.
The Chairpersons stressed that these issues are not theoretical but have real consequences for communities and public expenditure. They warned that, without clarity on technical issues, it is difficult to justify interventions, calculate costs and prevent damage from recurring. “These are the aspects that must be addressed if we are to do proper oversight,” said Dr Mkhize. He said that oversight is not only about response, but also about the quality and sustainability of reconstruction efforts. “We are here to look at how we manage disasters, how they recover and process and how the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure is done to prevent it from recurring. “This is important to ensure that communities are not left vulnerable when similar events occur again.
The joint delegation will conclude its oversight in Louieville in the Nkomazi Local Municipality today.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
