Public Works and Infrastructure Minister, Patricia de Lille, has approved the release of four State-owned land parcels for human settlement developments and accommodation for households affected by the KwaZulu-Natal floods.

This comes as the Minister and her deputy, Noxolo Kiviet, recently visited the province to inspect the work done by her department to repair flood damaged State-owned buildings in the province.

“I have signed off the release of four parcels of land on a gratis basis to be released to the Housing Development Agency (HDA) for human settlement development purposes,” De Lille said in a statement on Sunday.

The four parcels of land are located in the eThekwini Metro.

In addition, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) is processing another land parcel for release within the next two weeks.

Following the devastating April floods in KZN, DPWI was called on to identify suitable and available land to resettle communities displaced by the flooding.

De Lille explained that the land that will be transferred will only be used for accommodation of households affected by the floods and human settlement development purposes.

“We will continue to provide support in KZN in any way we can in terms of our mandate and work with all spheres of government to ensure that we restore KZN and help the many households in need,” she said.

She added that work to repair State-owned properties is progressing well.

“Work on the repairs to State-owned properties has progress well and is almost 100% complete while work will start in earnest on the rural bridges in the coming weeks.

“We look forward to returning to the province later this year to hand over completed bridges to communities in need and ensure that they have proper and decent access to places of work, school, hospitals and clinics and other amenities,” De Lille said.

Source: South African Government News Agency