As govt works on emergency relief measures for EC, Godongwana warns against inflating of prices

CAPE TOWN - Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has warned against the inflating of prices, as government works on emergency relief measures following the damaging floods in the Eastern Cape.

Godongwana said they were already seeing price fluctuations in some of the items government was buying to assist flood victims like food parcels.

The minister was addressing the cooperative governance and traditional affairs (COGTA) committee on Tuesday on the emergency budget allocations for the province, which is still reeling from the devastating floods that have seen more than 100 people killed.

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Minister Godongwana told the COGTA committee that the funding for the floods would be used for emergency relief as well as reconstruction, and would be processed in separate stages.

He said there was an initial amount of R5 billion available, which was in the contingency reserve.

But Godongwana warned that there were those who get up to mischief by inflating prices during emergency situations.

"In a situation like this, people start rushing and inflate prices in order to take chances. An example as we speak, we are beginning to see fluctuations in the food parcels. Clearly, there’s some mischief which is taking place."

Government's consolidated report on the floods said that the cost of repairing damaged infrastructure was estimated at R5.1 billion, with R3.2 billion of that going towards sector departments and R1.8 billion for municipal infrastructure.