More than R38 million has been approved to rebuild houses affected by the earthquake in Khuma near Orkney, the North West local government department said on Thursday.

"Government's promise to our people for the repairs and rebuilding of some houses still stands," MEC Collen Maine said in a statement.

"The money that we have requested for this intervention has just been approved after lengthy processes and I am happy to announce that we are ready to start with the process of intervening," said Maine.

Contractors were expected to start the project soon, while two contractors had volunteered to rebuild the two most affected houses expeditiously.

Maine visited the affected families on Wednesday to reassure them that work on their damaged houses would start in earnest.

"We will try to assist some so that they can have their shelter ready by Christmas but that will be hard to achieve as many companies will be closed soon. However most of the work will start in January and we expect completion in a space of about six months."

Altogether 1446 houses were damaged in August 2014, when an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale hit Orkney.

Thirteen of the houses were completely wrecked.