Local News
Over R100m set aside for rebuilding work in the wake of 2014 Orkney earthquake─── 11:41 Wed, 13 May 2015
Rustenburg - Over R100 million will be used to repair buildings damaged by an earthquake in Orkney last year, North West Local Government and Human Settlement MEC Collen Maine said.
“R38,5 million will be utilised for the repairs of residential property; R102 million for repairs on affected schools and R7,1 million for repairs on health facilities. As I speak, contractors are on site, repairing the damages caused by the earthquake of 5 August 2014 mainly affecting Matlosana,” he said on Tuesday, during his department budget vote.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Orkney in August last year. According to the Council for Geoscience (CGS) in South Africa, the earthquake was the biggest in South Africa since the 1969 Tulbagh earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Maine said the department would further use R9,1 million to procure fire engines for a number of municipalities.
The municipality were Kagisano Molopo, Tswaing, Ditsobotla, Mamusa and Naledi.
“The purpose of the support is to ensure that our municipalities respond to emergencies and disaster timeously.”
He said the department had also provided disaster management support to the tune of R2.5 million to four district disaster management centres to help with training and capacity building.
“In Greater Taung local municipality, 330 women from 26 wards were trained in basic fire fighting and first-aid, during the commemoration of the women’s month, as part of the women in disaster management project.”
He said the women were issued with certificates of competency so that they were able to manage disasters and emergencies in their own localities.
