Update
MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Parts of Seemeeuvlug and the Botha Street and Nicolai Street areas in Great Brak River affected by landslides will not be declared disaster areas.
Instead, they will be scaled down to "landslide incidents".
At the Mossel Bay municipal council meeting on 28 September, councillors learnt that the costs of repairs to municipal infrastructure incurred by the municipality due to landslides were R2 210 245 for the Seemeeuvlug area and R1 298 905 for the Botha Street area in Great Brak River.
In terms of the Disaster Management Act (Act 57 of 2002), and the guidelines provided in terms of the National Disaster Management Framework, a percentage of the municipality's own revenue must be allocated to address the disaster before additional financial assistance can be asked for from either provincial or national government. According to this framework, the threshold percentage for the Mossel Bay Municipality is 0.6% of own revenue.
Before an item can be submitted to the Eden District Municipality in support of the local disaster declaration, the Eden Disaster Management Centre would need to be able to motivate to the provincial disaster management centre that this threshold had been reached. However, as the amounts spent by the Mossel Bay Municipality have not yet reached the set threshold, the disaster declaration will have to be scaled down.
Further surveys
Further surveys of the affected areas were proposed and the director of town planning and integrated services, Carel Venter, was asked to explore the possibility that the provincial Department of Human Settlements assists the Botha Street and Nicolai Street residents in the affected areas after the completion of the landslide surveys.
Further feedback sessions with residents of the affected areas will include the members of the mayoral committee and other senior staff and will be facilitated by the municipality's legal representative who dealt with previous engagements with the community.
Once these meetings have been concluded, the municipality intends to issue a media statement.
Council accepted recommendations that surveys of the affected areas be done to determine the current magnitude of the occurrence and the possible effect on municipal services. The unstable section of Rylaan 2 in Seemeeuvlug will be permanently barricaded once the houses within the high risk area have been demolished.
Read a previous news flash: Report on landslide problems
ARTICLE: NICKEY LE ROUX, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER NEWS EDITOR
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