South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a national state of disaster to tackle the widespread flood that has affected seven of the nine provinces in the country.
As per a statement from the office of the presidency on Monday, the floods have majorly affected Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape bringing in heavy rainfall that resulted in the La Nina weather phenomenon.
Gauteng, KwaZulu, Limpopo, the Northern Cape, and North West are also underwater. The imposition of the national disaster act will give the government added powers such as receiving and delivery of goods and services as well as the ability to ignore restrictions under current law.
A statement said that the national police and defence force may be summoned to combat the floods. According to the statement, the floods have damaged homes and vehicles to “the loss of basic infrastructure.”
Farmers will continue to lose crops and livestock as the government’s weather service predicts the weather pattern to remain the same “during the early part of 2023”, as per the statement.
Last week, Ramaphosa announced a national state of disaster concerning South Africa’s power shortages, as daily power cuts negatively impacted businesses.
South Africa Declares “State Of Disaster” To Tackle Energy Crisis
In March 2020, the country invoked the national disaster act to fight the coronavirus pandemic, as well as last April to tackle floods in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.
