Ministers Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Zweli Mkhize, Thulas Nxesi pleased with new pedestrian bridges in Eastern Cape

Ministers pleased with the constructed pedestrian bridges in the Eastern Cape province

South Africa experienced incessant rainfall conditions during the week of 22 to 26 April 2019 affecting mainly KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and the Free State Provinces. The impact of the rainfall conditions range from deaths (standing at 86 for the three provinces) infrastructure damages as well as injuries and loss of personal belongings. Since the outbreak of the incidents, government has been hard at work to ensure that humanitarian and service needs of the affected people and communities are addressed.

To this effect, the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Ms Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula; the Minister of Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr Zweli Mkhize; and the Minister of Public Works (DPW),  Mr Thulas Nxesi visited some areas in the Eastern Cape Province to assess the damages caused to a number bridges by the recent flooding and mudslides.

The first stop for Ministers was Cwaka Bridge situated in Mbizana Local Municipality.

The visit of the three Ministers follows an earlier inspection and visit by Minister Zweli Mkhize to the flood ravaged areas in the Eastern Cape. Following that visit, Minister Mkhize coordinated relevant departments through the National Disaster Management Centre  (NDMC) to facilitate interventions in the affected areas in the province.

As part of a suite of measures put in place, the National and Provincial Joint Operation (JOC) structures were advised by the Inter-ministerial task team (IMTT) that priority attention is given to the restoration of access routes to the voting stations as well as schools, clinics and other critical facilities in the affected areas.

To this end, the national JOC chaired by the NDMC coordinated a deployment of the Department of Public Works (DPW) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to the critically affected areas in the Eastern Cape Province where movement of people might be negatively affected due to damages to roads and bridges owing to the flooding incidents.

The DPW and SANDF were given a list of seventeen (17) bridges requiring emergency intervention in the Eastern Cape Province. 

The SANDF’s Army Engineering Regiment conducted assessments of all the identified bridges in the Eastern Cape to determine the extent of the damage, the type of interventions required and the level of priority that each bridge is accorded.

In this case, the Defence Force identified both short and long term interventions to enable movement of communities and goods across municipalities. In the short-term, temporary pedestrian bridges are being build to ensure that communities can safely cross the rivers to access amenities on either side. Currently, six (6) temporary pedestrian bridges have already been completed. In some areas, the Defence Force indicated that due to the terrain and the fact that the some rivers have a wider gap, the temporary structures will not be possible and in such cases, it was recommended that permanent structures be the only solution.

"The temporary structures are an important intervention for now to ensure that there are no people who are cut off from other areas, but government will expedite the building of permanent bridges to sure that mobility is made easy", said Minister Mkhize.

The Ministers lauded integrated approach by all departments that led to the speedy interventions in critical areas. The communities who gathered at the site expressed their appreciation for bridges that have been build as they are an important investment for their communities.

Various departments will urgently begin planning and costing to build permanent bridges that would also accommodate vehicles. After the permanent structures are build, the temporary bridges will be dismantled.

Ministers asked communities to protect this important infrastructure against theft or vandalism.

Due to the visit of Minister Mkhize, the intervention did happen as he called and coordinated the work after he saw the bridges that were eroded by floods.

This interventions will continue to ensure that people on the ground are able to move, even beyond being able to access polling stations on Wednesday.

Speaking on site, the Mayor of Mbizana Local Municipality, Cllr Faku indicated that Mbizana as the largest municipality in the district with 31 wards, has been the most affected with nineteen (19) of its bridges destroyed by floods. She expressed appreciation for the work done by the SANDF to assist the people of Mbizana.

After Ministers visited Cwaka in Mbizana, they proceeded to Port St Johns and Nyandeni, but the visit was aborted due to bad weather conditions.

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