The current extreme weather will no doubt once again expose our government’s inability to speedily and effectively prepare for or deal with its consequences.
The cut-off low has brought with it damaging winds, storms and flooding across parts of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and elsewhere.
There is nothing wrong with our warning systems.
The SA Weather Service gave everyone detailed notice of where the effect of the severe weather conditions would most likely be experienced.
On Monday it upgraded its warning to an orange level six for heavy downpours and flooding along the Eastern Cape coast and adjacent interior. It also warned of damaging winds.
There is also nothing wrong with the province’s “paper preparedness”.
The Disaster Management Act: Eastern Cape Provincial Disaster Risk Management Policy Framework clearly sets out roles for “prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery” across departments and municipalities.
It is, in theory at least, an excellent blueprint for co-ordinated action for readiness and disaster management when severe weather alerts are issued.
But the reality is all too often not up to scratch across most of the country.
Who can forget the April 2022 KwaZulu-Natal flood disaster which claimed hundreds of lives and caused extensive damage to infrastructure and, ultimately, the economy?
Or the June 2025 Mthatha floods in which more than 100 people lost their lives and thousands were displaced?
Both those disasters, which had been predicted days in advance, showed up several gaps in the disaster management process including preparedness, response and mitigation.
Post-disaster relief would cost far less if there was better proactive risk reduction
Research suggests there was “no robust capacity or co-ordination among key stakeholders”.
The weather warnings simply do not trigger the appropriate protective action, especially for vulnerable communities near flood zones.
If there was any operational preparedness after high-level warnings, municipalities and emergency services should have planned evacuation routes and ensured the readiness of community halls for temporary shelter.
A key stakeholder in all of this should be our municipalities.
But most Eastern Cape municipalities are broke and incapable — a fact highlighted annually by the auditor-general.
While most communities suffer daily the results of poor service delivery, extreme weather brings a whole new list of hazardous woes.
It starts off with poor maintenance of roads and stormwater drainage systems.
Drains in every municipality and metro are generally broken or blocked with litter and weeds.
This increases by a huge margin the chance of dangerous flooding and damage.
Environmental disasters are happening with increasing frequency and severity globally and SA is no exception.
Somehow, the Eastern Cape government has to improve its own and our municipalities’ preparedness and response to extreme weather.
Post-disaster relief would cost far less if there was better proactive risk reduction.
Daily Dispatch
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