Favio
24 February 2007
The Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Sydney Mufamadi,
responsible for disaster management, and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Aziz Pahad, returned from Mozambique to South Africa today, Saturday, 24
February 2007, on a mission to determine the nature of support required by the
people of Mozambique. This trip comes in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone,
Favio, which struck parts of Southern Mozambique on Thursday, 22 February 2007.
The country had initially experienced extreme flooding in its Northern Region
(the Zambezi River Basin), exacerbated by further rainfall in neighbouring
countries.
The Mozambican Government has proactively implemented numerous contingency
plans and mobilised significant resources to pre-empt and deal with the direct
effects of the disaster. The affected areas were evacuated prior to the
Tropical Cyclone reaching land and leaving a large number of people displaced
and now accommodated in temporary shelters. So far three deaths have been
reported due to the Cyclone and 30 people lost their lives due to the
floods.
South Africa will further support this effort. We have pledged our
solidarity and we are confident that the people of Mozambique will overcome
this calamity. The immediate needs for humanitarian assistance include
helicopters, tents for displaced people who are now living in temporary
accommodation centres, roof sheeting for the reconstruction of homes, water
treatment plants for the accommodation and resettlement centres.
We are ready to provide the material assistance required by the Government
of Mozambique. These include the provision of the helicopters to transport food
to the temporary accommodation centres. We will also provide a liaison officer
to be stationed in Maputo for the duration of the relief as well as an
assessment team for more detailed planning.
We will provide an extra 170 flying hours for the monitoring of activities
in the entire affected area. We are investigating the possibility of providing
mobile water purification units. In addition to the above, our urban search and
rescue capacity is on standby and they will be deployed should the need
arise.
In respect of health issues the Mozambican Government indicated that a
situational analysis was underway. Pending this, an advanced medical rescue
team is also on standby.
For more information, contact:
Zandile Ratshitanga
Department of Provincial and Local Government
Cell: 082 460 2041
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
24 February 2007
