By More Matshediso
Pretoria - Provincial governments in the areas affected by Tuesday’s earth tremor have taken the necessary measures to ensure the safety of residents and workers by assessing buildings.
The MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) in KwaZulu-Natal, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, has placed all disaster management centres located throughout the province's municipal districts on high alert.
This comes after a man died in Orkney, North West, due to the 5.3 magnitude tremor that hit many parts of South Africa on Tuesday. A wall in one of the old mining areas fell on him. He died before paramedics arrived at the scene.
"Our disaster management facilities are monitoring the situation closely and we are ready to intervene in any part of KZN with speed should it become necessary," said MEC Dube-Ncube.
The eThekwini Disaster management centre has registered the tremor, but Cogta maintains that no damages as a result of it have been reported thus far.
"We would like to reassure the citizens of KZN that we have activated all our systems and are working with the National Disaster Management Centre to ascertain any damages and the extent of the incident. We will respond to any findings swiftly," said MEC Dube-Ncube.
Free State
Meanwhile, the Free State provincial government received a report that indicated it was safe to occupy government buildings.
The report was compiled by the Public Works Chief Engineer in the province, who oversaw the structural review of the government buildings following the earth tremor.
“He conducted an assessment of eight buildings, including Universitas Hospital and Pelonomi as well as National Hospital. He will be going there today again. He did not pick up any noticeable damages to the buildings as a result of the tremor,” the Free State provincial government said.
The Premier’s Office in the Free State said further assessments will be done again on Wednesday and a status report will be issued later in the day.
“We trust that government officials will do their work with the highest assurance of safety,” the Premier’s Office said.
Yesterday, the Director-General of the Free State Provincial Government, Kopung Ralikontsane, ordered all public servants to evacuate government buildings immediately after the tremor.
“He told them to go home and report for duty the next day [Wednesday],” the Premier’s office said.
Ralikontsane said: “I want to take no chances but ensure that the safety of occupancy of all government buildings is guaranteed, and is based on the reports of the Structural Engineers after their thorough investigations.”
He then ordered that the engineer should assess all government buildings, including hospitals.
North West
In the North West, about 26 families from Khuma location in Stilfontein, east of Klerksdorp, whose homes were badly damaged by the earth tremor, are receiving temporary accommodation and basic needs from government.
This was confirmed by North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo, who visited the affected areas.
The tremor caused structural damages to more than 400 houses and buildings in places including Khuma, Kanana, Tigane, Alabama and Jouberton.
Tremors were also felt in Botswana and Swaziland, and as far afield as Mozambique.
Premier Mahumapelo said the provincial departments will work closely with the affected municipalities in ensuring that the damaged houses are renovated and fit for human habitation.
“A team of engineers will be working around the clock to thoroughly assess the structural defects of all households and public buildings to ensure that our responsibility of guaranteeing people’s safety is ably carried out,” said Premier Mahumapelo. - SAnews.gov.za
