While you were asleep: KZN floods return SA to State of Disaster with over 440 dead

We begin this morning with the latest news from KwaZulu-Natal where clean-up efforts continued over the long weekend following severe flooding and a death toll that has since risen to over 440 people.

Yesterday evening, the cabinet declared a national state of disaster said President Cyril Ramaphosa in a televised address and resolved that national government would lead the response efforts to the floods.

The economic damage wrought will run into the billions of rands said the president.

“A comprehensive assessment of the economic cost of these floods still has to be made, but it is clear that it will run into billions of rands for the rebuilding of infrastructure and loss of production,” he said.

Most importantly, the Port of Durban, seen as one of the gateways to Africa and one of the largest and busiest ports in Africa has been severely affected and damaged, which will have large scale implications on the SA economy.

And this is just as Durban and other parts of the country were finally recovering from the violent looting and rioting that also claimed many lives and cost the economy enormous amounts of money when they broke out in July 2021.

Ramaphosa said there would be no room for corruption or mismanagement of funds when it came to the government’s relief efforts, but it was a stark admission from the president to acknowledge the public mistrust in government to use funds earmarked for disaster relief appropriately.

Finance minister Enoch Godongwana acknowledged as much on Sunday when explained that officials were looking at setting up an independent agency to manage relief funds, which would include people from outside the government to ensure transparency.

And yesterday evening, Ramaphosa said he had already spoken with the leadership from the Solidarity Fund, who have pledged their support and willingness to help facilitate the funds.

Read President Cyril Ramaphosa’s full speech here.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said the “Battle of Donbas” had begun following a fresh onslaught by the Russian military that saw forces shelling locations throughout the eastern region of the country.

There have also been reports that a Russian missile attack on Lviv on Monday could have killed seven civilians. If true, it would be the first time that there have been civilian deaths in the city since the war broke out.

In the markets, after the long weekend, the dollar is on the front foot, driven by soaring US bond yields and the renewed onslaught by Russia in Ukraine. The rand has opened at R14.69/$ this morning, slightly down on last night’s closing level of R14.64/$.

“The rand is sitting at the upper end of the recent range as it remains susceptible to international movements but should gain some support from higher commodity prices and resource-driven dollar inflows,” comments TreasuryONE.

On the commodity front, metal prices closed higher yesterday and remain strong this morning with gold at $1,973, platinum at $1,015, and palladium at $2,430.

“A disruption to oil supply out of Libya along with Russian supply losses has seen the price of Brent bounce to $113.40 while WTI has risen to $108.10,” says TreasuryONE.