Speaking in Lamontville, Ntuli said he was hopeful as the first group of flood victims had been taken to a much safer place.

“There are other families, in our view, we are worried that if it rains even at night, we don’t know what will happen to those left behind,” Ntuli said.

He said they have spoken to the human settlements head of department, Max Mbili, about the need for a plan to ensure the relocation of more people from Lamontville because he saw some of the houses; therefore, they needed to be relocated.

Regarding Inanda, Ntuli said a blockage caused people to move from their original houses and some community members did not dispose of their garbage correctly.

Ntuli said that needs to be addressed so people can care for nature and the infrastructure.

“It’s very important that we look after the infrastructure with the climate change in our province,” Ntuli said.

He said there will be a climate change conference next week where academics and researchers will unite to provide solutions.

“What is important now is that we require solutions, we cannot just watch people suffering the way they are, we need to do something quite urgently,” Ntuli said.

Ntuli added that the search continues for the woman who was swept away by floodwaters in Lamontville last month.

“We have lost 15 lives in eThekwini alone and have lost more than 20 lives in KwaZulu-Natal as a whole,” Ntuli said.

“Last week three lives were lost, so we send our condolences to the families.”

eThekwini Municipality mayor Cyril Xaba said eThekwini has 590 informal settlements and some people build in unsuitable places like floodplains and protected areas.

“We don’t have enough land to settle people. We are now appealing to amakhosi or neighbouring amakhosi to make land available so that we can then settle people.”

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za