The KwaZulu-Natal government hopes President Cyril Ramaphosa will declare a state of disaster in areas devastated by the recent floods because the affected municipalities are in no position to cover the repairs themselves. 

"We would appreciate it if the president could declare a state of disaster in the affected municipalities because the costs are already in excess of billions, which these municipalities cannot afford," said Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Thembi Sithole-Moloi in a statement issued during a site visit to some of the flood-affected areas on Sunday. 

In a joint statement by national and provincial Cogta, Sithole-Moloi indicated that the affected municipalities had already been classified as disaster areas, and all that remains is a presidential declaration of the areas as disaster zones to expedite the release of emergency funding required for repairs.

More than R2-billion worth of infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, schools and households was recorded in the Uthukela District Municipality alone. For now, Uthukela, Ilembe, Ugu and eThekwini have been identified as disaster zones.

Sithole-Moloi said R1.2-billion had already been transferred to the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, but the continued rain is holding up damage repair.

KwaZulu-Natal has been pummelled by relentless, torrential rain since the devastating downpours of mid-April 2022, which surpassed the levels and scale of catastrophe caused by the last major flood in the province in 1987.

In the past two years, hundreds of people have been killed and billions' worth of private and public property and infrastructure have been damaged.

Cogta Minister Thembi Nkadimeng said the government was warned about these events a long time ago.

In a voice note distributed by her publicity team, she said:

Honestly, we were warned about seven years ago.

"We should have expanded our dams. We should have expanded our bridges."

The only silver lining has been improved response times to the disasters, which reduced the number of fatalities. 

Nkadimeng also said early warning systems predict a drought for the region. 

"We need to be talking about water conservation," she said.

The minister said they were hoping to bring Ramaphosa to witness the devastation in KwaZulu-Natal in person soon. 

"We do believe that the president will give guidance in relation to the Disaster [Management] Act as he is supposed to," Nkadimeng added.