By Jeanne Barnard
On April 11th 2022, days of heavy rain across KwaZulu-Natal culminated in widespread damage and deadly floods.
The aftermath of the flood left thousands without homes, food, running water or electricity. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a National State of Disaster on April 18th 2022, one week after the floods.
Humanitarian Aid
Durban North and surrounding areas rallied to assist those hard hit by the floods. Businesses and residents donated food, water and other essential items to aid the Search and Rescue workers and victims of the floods. Search and Rescue quickly became Search and Retrieve as the body count just keeps rising as the hours turns into days.
Multiple donation incentives developed over the past few days, one of which is overseen by Vanessa Knight, chairman of ward 36 Residents Association.
Vanessa and her team coordinate the influx of donations, making up parcels of much needed food, water, water purifiers, nappies, toilet paper, vegetables etc. before sending out to rural areas via Humanitarian Flights as the remote areas are no longer accessible by road due to water damage.
Everything was going smoothly until yesterday, April 18th 2022, when Vanessa was contacted by one of her team members, saying that a group of vehicles have arrived to confiscate the donations.
Vanessa arrived at Virginia Airport (Durban North) to find trucks loaded with all the donations they had available. Food, water, essential items, everything was loaded onto the trucks.
Vanessa parked her car in front of the trucks to stop them from leaving. She confronted the group of people who insisted they had every right to take the goods. They couldn’t keep their story straight though, they claimed to be from either the Health Department, Customs or eThekwini Municipality. No paperwork could be produced to prove who they were or why they had the right to remove the aid parcels.
To make matters worse, our own Police members were involved in helping the supposed Municipal workers gain access to these donations. Vanessa and her team had no choice but to let them go.
Vanessa went to the site where most of the rescues and recoveries were taking place, informing the rescue workers of the incident. Leaving no stone unturned, they got on their phones, made numerous phone calls to all the right people and managed to get everything returned to Vanessa’s initiative at Virginia Airport.
Vanessa fought tooth and nail to have all the donations returned, stating that she wasn’t willing to let the goods that she was trusted with stolen and distributed goodness knows where.
So this story has a happy ending, all goods were returned and those in need will benefit from the caring hearts and helping hands of the South African people.
See video below of Vanesa’s altercation with the truck drivers…
In conclusion, herewith a summary of the statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the declaration of a National State of Disaster to respond to widespread flooding:
- 443 deaths to date
- 48 people missing or unaccounted for
- 4000 houses completely destroyed
- 8000 houses damaged
- 40 000 people displaced
- Access to the port severely hampered by damage to Bayhead Road on the Bluff
- 270 000 learners affected
- 600 schools damaged
- 16 schools are still not reachable
- 66 health care facilities affected
- Following a cabinet sitting on Sunday evening, the provincial disaster has now been upgraded to a NATIONAL DISASTER
- SAPS are continuing with search & rescue operations
- SANDF will be deployed (10 000 people) to assist with services such as water & sanitation, filtration, electricity & food distribution
- The Solidarity fund will set up a separate bank account to facilitate donations towards aid.
- The supply of water, food & shelter will be priority
- An additional 100 tankers will be supplied to support the eThekwini municipal tanker fleet.
- Vouchers will be distributed to rebuild houses
- State owned land will be identified to relocate displaced people
- Repairs to the N2 & N3 to be prioritized
- An initial amount of 1 billion rand will be made available immediately.
- A special sitting of parliament will be conducted next week to discuss the matter and additional funding towards the exercise
Help us ensure that help goes to those who need it. Was it not for the video footage, these donations would have been lost to the flood victims. Not every atrocity taking place in South Africa has video footage to back its validity.
So many instances of violence, crime, corruption, and discrimination take place on a daily basis and most go unseen and unpunished.
South Africa has become synonymous with Farm Murders and is known to be the Rape Capital of the World. Racial discrimination is affecting the quality of life of all white South Africans.
It is the brave who take a stand and make public the misdoings of those in power.
If anyone would like to help please donate to https://paypal.me/JohnB
