Question NW3492 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
04 December 2017 - NW3492
Lekota, Mr M to ask the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
With reference to the impending water shortage disaster within the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality, what were the circumstances and motivation that informed the National Disaster Management centre’s refusal to provide R500 million to the specified municipality to assist towards mitigating the disaster?
Reply:
The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) did not refuse to provide R500 million funding request from the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality to mitigate the impact of the disaster as a result of drought. The NDMC in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, mainly Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre and the Department of Water and Sanitation conducted disaster assessments in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality to determine the drought projects to be funded within the disaster grants. It is important to indicate that the disaster grants are conditional and allocated in line with the grant frameworks and the Division of Revenue Act (Act No. 3 of 2017). The NDMC only funded projects that fell within the grant frameworks conditions. The Western Cape Provincial Disaster Management Centre and the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality were advised to refer other projects that are not in line with the conditions for the disaster grants to other existing programmes within government.
Additionally, the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality made a presentation to the NDMC where they indicated that they have reprioritized funds within their internal resources to address the drought conditions. Therefore, the funding request for the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality was granted based on the projects that complied with the grant framework conditions