Farewell and let us be kind to one another

Greg Vogt previous CEO of Knysna & Partners writes:

The #KnysnaFire struck two weeks before my exit from Knysna & Partners. The emotional process of leaving an organisation that sells Knysna, South Africa’s most popular town, is challenging. To exit during a level 1 disaster is even more emotionally challenging.

But this letter is not about me, it is about the process we are all enduring, whether having lost a home or not.

My farewell note comes in the form of advice to everyone involved in the recovery process as #KnysnaRises.

For a moment, think of this as an event we would have had to prepare for. Imagine our team being the firefighters (led by the coach and specialist coaches) and the management being the support process led by the disaster crisis management team.

The event organiser (local government), with the support of regional and national sanctioned bodies (regional, provincial and national govt), would have had to prepare for every detail of the event. Arrival time of the fire, preparation of the teams to take on the first onslaught, preparation for water supply to keep fighting the fire and accommodation for firefighting teams, social support for those losing their homes and logistical support to ensure that everyone was ready for every detail before and after the fire.

Preparation for the 100+ events held during the Pick n Pay Knysna Oyster festival begins long in advance of the event, so at a guess, planning, training and preparation for the disaster we have collectively experienced would have taken at least two or more years to plan for.

My advice and counsel to everyone is to take this approach when dealing with whatever you have to deal with in recovering from this disaster. Hindsight is an exact science and provides one with the detail we would have had to plan for should this have been an event. But it was not an event, it was a level 1 disaster, the magnitude of which has never been experienced before in South Africa.

As we account for the details of this disaster, we are all learning in the process and this learning will surely make our town and its leadership one of the most efficient towns going forward.

But right now there is one thing we are not accounting for and not even coming close to accommodating and assimilating in our minds. That is the extent of our collective emotional trauma. There is more post-traumatic stress walking around Knysna than you can imagine, and to this I have one piece of advice:

Just as this would have taken years to prepare for if it were an event, so too will it take us years to recover from. So let us practice forgiveness every day; before the day starts and at the close of a day. Take the time to understand that the councillor or municipal official representing this team is as traumatised as you, but that dear soul has to continue leading the process going forward.

We will all come out of this with something special in our hearts. The resilience we are learning from this process will be tangible and will shine through our eyes for the world to see. The outcome of this disaster will permeate through to our youth who will have learned from us and from our conduct during this crisis. So let us take each step forward in a way that we would want our children to when and if they encounter a disaster of some kind in the future.

Right now however, we have the opportunity to shine and lead by example. Most importantly, we have the opportunity to conduct ourselves as champions who have had years to prepare for this level one disaster. Let our conduct towards one another be our collective therapy.

#KnysnaRises