Disaster management ‘disaster’
South Africa ‘unprepared to provide large-scale assistance’
SOUTH Africa may not be prone to earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or tsunamis, but some experts in the disaster management industry fear the worst could happen if the country does not urgently improve its preparation plans.
The increase in flooding and drought cases in some parts of the country as a result of erratic weather patterns brought about by climate change, such as the Knysna fires, are some of the talking points that have left many experts asking if the country has enough capacity and resources to manage or reduce the risk of future disasters.
“If we are hit by an earthquake tomorrow, we are in big trouble,” Bafana Mazibuko, the outgoing president of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa, said yesterday.
Mazibuko was speaking on the sidelines of the annual Disaster Management Conference held in Ekurhuleni.
He said that despite the Disaster Management Act of 2002 calling for an integrated and co-ordinated disaster risk management policy, there was still a misalignment between the government and the institutions that had been mandated to provide aid.
“In my view, as a country, we are 10 years behind in terms of establishing concrete disaster management policies.
“We don’t have a proper risk assessment policy, and if you look at the capacity of the institutions that are meant to deal with these disasters, they are not aligned to do what the act requires them to do,” Mazibuko said.
He also lamented the shortage of disaster management personnel employed in the country.
“While numbers at some municipalities look as though they are adequate, in other municipalities and on a national level it is simply a monumental disaster. We just don’t have enough people, let alone qualified personnel. Disaster management is a profession. You can’t just take anyone Disaster Management Institute of SA and employ them to deal with a matter that requires thorough consideration and planning,” he said.
Mazibuko also called for municipalities to consider disaster management when conducting their integrated development plans.
“These days you can’t build a house without considering how you will deal with a fire emergency or how you will protect it against natural disasters,” he said.
In April, the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) through the Ministry of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), donated R42 million to the Northern Cape Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to help farmers who had been affected by the drought.
Furthermore, the Treasury has set aside a disaster funding budget of R513m for the current financial year, which serves as the provincial and municipal disaster grants respectively.
The grant funds are administered by Cogta through the NDMC.
Cogta Minister Zweli Mkhize, however, said there was no need for South Africans to panic.
“We have worked on plans that will look at how we ensure that we have appropriate structures, that our policies allow us to have enough resources and use scientific data to respond and predict (these disasters) long ahead of time,” Mkhize said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the conference.
Mkize said all 257 municipalities in the country were well equipped to deal with disasters.
“South Africa has all the expertise needed. What we need to ensure is that there is an alignment of these resources, and to train those who need to be trained. Until disaster strikes, you can never tell what the shortfalls are. You only discover when there is a disaster. We then need to move forward, we need to take lessons out of that, and I hope we will find solutions at this conference,” he said.
Mkhize also warned that contingency reserves (grants) would not be given to municipalities that had been found to be negligent.
“We often declare a state of emergency or disasters to aid those in need, such as we did with the drought. But if those municipalities did nothing to avert the hazardous situation, then we can’t help them. What we always say is, don’t come with something that was negligence and then want to claim when you could have planned better,” he said.
The head of the NDMC, Dr Mmaphaka Tau, said the government could not afford to be mechanical in its approach to disaster management.
Over the years, the South African Weather Service (Saws) has worked with the NDMC to raise alerts on potential disasters in order to avert them.
Saws representative Tshepo Ngobeni said there were drastic changes in weather patterns due to climate change, as currently experienced in some parts of the country through heat waves and cold fronts. However, he emphasised that it was important to assess weather patterns over a period of 10 years to see what South Africa was most likely to grapple with in the coming years, and how to better plan for this.
The disaster management conference concludes today.
On a national level, the shortage of personnel is simply a monumental disaster