Flood disasters – let’s not let a crisis go to waste
THE recent floods that engulfed KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have been described in almost every word that speaks of an unimaginable disaster. Not even the floods of the 1980s in Durban that had elders speaking in horror of coffins “flowing in the streets” can be compared to the recent downpours. This is human disaster of unimaginable proportion.
If the adage of not letting a good crisis go to waste is to be taken into consideration following what KZN and the Eastern Cape have experienced, it would be foolish of our government not to use this opportunity to regain the trust of the citizenry.
A large part of KZN would need no less than a year to be brought back to a normal state.
There lies the opportunity for the governing party – not forgetting the individuals and factions who like to position themselves as some sort of deity, saviours of the people, the contentious issue of employment, the often-used political tool. This time, however, this needs not be pie in the sky. Long-term employment, not the numbers game that is the Expanded Public Works Programme, is a blessing that has been brought about by the merciless torrential rains.
Rebuilding from a natural disaster does not have a universal template where a copy-and-paste approach can be taken. It all depends on the swiftness of the policymakers, and this is one area that has shown that we are lacking as a country.
The KZN disaster has shown how poor we are in responding and planning for a disaster. The province was hit by floods during the Easter of 2019, and from that incident, we never planned for another possibility. With the recent 2022 floods, the reaction of the Cabinet was appalling, to say the least. Non-governmental organisations were first on the scene, with the Cabinet sitting and taking a decision only when they saw the number of casualties rising.
Right now, we cannot dwell on the lack of rapid action from the government. What the authorities need to consider is the matter of “not letting a crisis go to waste”. Amid the devastation engulfing the KZN province as well as the Eastern Cape lies the opportunity for government – utilising the manpower and myriad skills lying idle and making up more than 70% of unemployed youth.
In his State of the Province address earlier this year, KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala said “unemployment remained a concern for the province’s economy” and went on to state that the “unemployment rate has now risen to 28.7% from about 23% before the pandemic”. This only being the official unemployment rate – with the expanded unemployment rate sitting at 49%.
Waxing lyrical in praise of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana Budget speech, President Cyril Ramaphosa called it “a budget for growth and employment.”
This budget promised billions upon billions for small businesses (R15bn in loan guarantee schemes), local government (R30bn for basic municipal services), infrastructure development (catalytic projects such as “upgrading of roads, bridges, water and sewer infrastructure, transport, schools, hospitals and clinics”) as well as a “stimulus to provide vital income, skills development and work experience to hundreds of thousands of unemployed, mostly young, people” (R18.4bn).
These figures are just mouthwatering for the vultures that are always circling over money meant for the greater good. However, this is no time for avarice.
Based on the president’s State of the Nation Address promises, the commitments by the Minister of Finance and the deliberations of the Cabinet Disaster Management Caucus (albeit always prolonged with delayed decisions), the Disaster Funds from National Treasury as well as other funds already committed before the KZN floods present an opportunity for job creation and economic revival of the province.
This could be a test case for South Africa on how to use an unfortunate event to fight unemployment and build a sense of nationalism.
The reality we face is that it is going to take more than a year, probably two years, to get KZN back to normal – and using the reconstruction period to make it better, so it is able to survive future floods. We need to shy away from the popular belief that South Africa has a skills shortage. We have a lot of graduates, among them engineers, standing at traffic lights handing out CVs. We have 70% of young people sitting without jobs.
This is an opportunity for government departments and provincial governments to work together to send labour to various parts of KZN. This is an opportunity to go back to the forgotten communities and build proper bridges and roads.
“All roads lead to KZN” should be the government recruitment strategy over the next few months. I saw an advert where the Department of Human Settlements in KZN is calling for “retired” professionals in the built environment, and I thought, “if this is the only solution, we are going to miss a golden opportunity here”.
In a disaster, you call on all available resources – in this instance, we need to make sure that work-integrated learning, in-service training, learnerships and skills programmes, as implemented by Setas (Sector Education and Training Authorities) under the auspices of the Department of Higher Education, are included in the rebuilding of infrastructure in the affected areas.
If the departments and provinces continue to work in silos, we are going to waste a good crisis. Ministries of Human Settlement, Public Works, Water, Higher Education, Labour and others need to come together.
Get unemployed people from all over the country to be part of the rebuilding programmes, make sure that companies that are involved prioritise South Africans – not for any other reason but to fight unemployment, empower people with skills, build a sense of “working together”.
South Africa has for years survived on internal labour migration. Instead of having people from KZN and the Eastern Cape flock to Gauteng and other provinces in search for jobs, the KZN and Eastern Cape disaster presents an opportunity for other provinces to send labour and also foster decentralisation.
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